09d426f1b893d002ca97155d528bc19f16d15fdfe2623082ed49d3b6a0b24490

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+The Smurfs are fictional little blue beings created by Peyo, a Belgian cartoonist. They first appeared in 1958, and later in a cartoon television show created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in the 1980s. On September 12, 1981, they were featured on NBC on Saturday mornings as a cartoon series.[1] The little blue creatures from Belgium became popular among all ages.[1]
+
+A feature movie called The Smurfs was released in 2011.[2] The Smurfs 2 was a sequel released July 31, 2013.[3]
+
+The smurfs are very small.  In cartoons in which they appear with humans, they are small enough to stand on a human hand.
+
+Most Smurfs are male. There are only 3 females in the village: Smurfette, Sassette Smurfling, and Nanny Smurf.
+
+Most Smurfs wear white pants and white Phrygian caps. Papa Smurf, Grandpa Smurf, and some of the Smurflings dress differently. Grandpa Smurf wears yellow clothes and Papa Smurf wears red clothes. The Smurflings are Sassette, Snappy, Slouchy, and Nat. Sassette and Nat do not dress like the other Smurfs at all, while Slouchy and Nat do dress like the others. In some comics, the Smurfs dress differently in color or clothing.
+
+Smurfs live in mushroom-shaped houses in a village in a forest.
+

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+Franz Peter Schubert (31 January 1797, Vienna – 19 November 1828, Vienna) was an Austrian composer. Although he died at the age of 31, he composed over one thousand pieces of music. There were other great composers who lived and worked in Vienna: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but Schubert is the only one who was born in Vienna. He was the last great composer of the Classical music period, and one of the first of the Romantic period.
+
+Schubert’s father was a schoolteacher. Twelve children were born into the family, but only four of them lived to become adults. Schubert's father tried to persuade his sons to help at the school when they grew up. As a boy, the young Franz learned the violin, piano, organ, singing and harmony. He soon became very good at them all. His teachers were all amazed at how quickly he learned. He was also very good at other subjects in school.
+
+In the holidays he played string quartets with his two brothers and his father. He wrote his first string quartets for them to play. By the age of 16 he had composed a lot of music, including his first symphony. His mother died. His father soon remarried. His stepmother was very kind to him and often lent him money. He had one strange thumb on his right hand.
+
+By the age of 17, Schubert was teaching at his father’s school. He had been rejected by the army because he was too short (shorter than five feet) and his sight was very poor. He still had composition lessons from Antonio Salieri. He often went to the opera where he heard some of the finest music of the time. He liked reading. One of his favourite books was Goethe’s Faust. He wrote a song called "Gretchen am Spinnrade" which is about the young girl in the book sitting at a spinning wheel dreaming of her lover. The piano has a gentle accompaniment which sounds like the throbbing of the spinning wheel. The music stops for a moment when the girl imagines her lover is kissing her, then the piano gradually starts again. It is a very famous song. Another song which soon made him famous in all Europe was "Erlkönig". When it was first published another composer whose name was also Franz Schubert, thought that somebody had published a song in his name because the music publishers sent it to him for correction. He sent a very angry letter back saying he had not composed that rubbish.
+
+It was difficult to find enough time to compose because he was a teacher. A man called Schober persuaded Schubert to give up teaching so that he could spend all his time composing. Soon he had become well known in all the drawing-rooms in Vienna where he met famous people, many of them musicians. These meetings were called “Schubertiads” because they played and sang his music. He wrote so many wonderful pieces that it seems strange that the music publishers did not want to publish them. They were only interested in publishing works written by performers, but were not very interested in people like Schubert who just composed. For a time he became music teacher for the two princesses of Count Johann Esterházy, but then he returned to Vienna to live with the Schober family. During the last few years of his life Schubert was ill. He had to leave the Schober’s house and find his own rooms. He was often desperately poor and composed in bed to keep warm.
+
+Although Beethoven and Schubert lived in the same town they only met once, although they knew one another’s music. Schubert visited Beethoven on 19 March 1827. Beethoven was dying. Schubert was one of the torch-bearers at his funeral. A year and a half later Schubert, too, had died. He asked to be buried near Beethoven. Their graves were just three places apart.
+
+Schubert’s songs are among the greatest ever written. They are all settings of German poems. German art songs are called Lieder (pronounced “leader”), and Schubert made his Lieder very special by making the piano accompaniments describe the action of the songs in many different ways. If you try to sing them in a translation it is difficult to make it sound good. It is best to hear them in German and to have a translation so that you understand what is being sung. Some of the last songs he wrote make up a cycle called “Die Winterreise” (“The Winter Journey”). The poems are about a man who is unhappy because his lover does not want him. He goes out into the cold winter woods and all nature seems to reflect the way he feels inside. The songs are usually sung by a male singer (tenor, baritone or bass).
+
+Schubert wrote a great deal of chamber music. Among his most famous pieces are several string quartets, a string quintet (for 2 violins, viola and 2 cellos) and the “Trout” quintet (for piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass). There are sonatas and sonatinas for violin and piano, and a sonata for an instrument called the “arpeggione” which was used for about ten years after it was invented and then it was forgotten. The sonata is normally played on a cello or a viola nowadays. There is lots of piano music including sonatas, impromptus and also piano duet music. Schubert wrote eight famous impromptus.
+
+Schubert wrote nine symphonies. The last one is known as the “Great” symphony in C major. The eighth is called the “Unfinished”. There are only two movements instead of the usual four. A lot of people still argue about why he left it unfinished. Some people even think that he completed it and that the last two movements are either lost, or are now known as movements from a piano duet. We shall probably never know for certain.
+
+Most of his life he was supported by his friends who gave him manuscript paper when he could not afford it. Many of his greatest works only became widely known in the 1860s, long after his death. The house in Vienna where Schubert was born is now a museum which people can visit.

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+The Schutzstaffel  (help·info) (SS) was a large security and military organization controlled by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Germany.  "SS" was sometimes written in Runic as , and this symbol was put on the SS flag and insignia.
+
+The SS played a major part in The Holocaust.  For example, they ran the Nazi concentration camps and death camps, where they killed millions of people.  After World War II, judges at the Nuremberg Trials ruled that the SS was an illegal criminal organization. The judges also said that the SS was the organization that had done most of the Holocaust.
+
+The SS was created in the 1925 to guard Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.  (Schutzstaffel means "Protection Squadron" in German).[1]pp.26-29  From 1929 to 1945, Heinrich Himmler led the SS.  During that time, the SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to one of the largest and most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany.[1]p.47
+
+The Nazis saw the SS as a special unit, like the Praetorian Guard (which used to guard Roman emperors).[2]  To be chosen for the SS, a person had to be racially "pure". This meant they had to prove that all their ancestors were "Aryan".[3]  They also had to be completely loyal to the Nazi party.  They could never ask questions or disagree with anything the SS did.[4]
+
+The SS had two different parts.  The Allgemeine-SS ("General SS") were the Nazis' police.  The Waffen-SS ("Armed SS") were special units of soldiers in Nazi Germany's military.[5] The Waffen-SS became known for fierce fighting and brutality against civilians and prisoners of war.  Its units helped crush the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where Polish Jews tried to fight back against the Nazis.[6]  Waffen-SS units also killed many American prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.[7][8]
+
+The SS was militaristic but not military. It had its own rank system, insignia, and uniforms.  This made the SS different from the German military, the Nazi party, and people who worked in the German government.[9]
+
+As the Nazi party gained more and more power in Germany, it gave control of more important jobs (like law enforcement) to the SS.  Many SS organizations became as powerful as parts of the government.  The Nazi party decided that to help it keep its power, it needed to give the SS two even more important jobs.  One of these was to create and run the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Nazi security and intelligence service.  The other was to control the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo): the SS secret police.[10]  Because it was in charge of so many important things, the SS could do almost anything it wanted.[11]
+
+As the SS's leader, Heinrich Himmler used the SS to put the Final Solution into action.[12]  The SS Einsatzgruppen murdered many civilians, mostly Jews, in the countries controlled by Nazi Germany during World War II.[13]  The SS was in charge of creating and running concentration camps and death camps (camps where people were sent to be killed).[14]  In these camps, millions of prisoners died from many causes, including murder, starvation, disease, freezing to death, and being experimented on by Nazi doctors like Josef Mengele.
+
+After the war, the judges at the Nuremberg Trials decided the SS was a criminal organization (a group that was created only to commit crimes).  They ruled that the SS had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.  They also said that the SS was the organization that had carried out most of the Holocaust.[15][16]

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+on the European continent  (green and dark grey)
+
+Switzerland (German: Schweiz; French: Suisse; Italian: Svizzera; Romansh: Svizra; Swiss German: Schwiz) is a small country in Western Europe. The official name of Switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica. This is Latin and is not often used except for state documents. Switzerland is a confederation of even smaller states, which are the 26 cantons.
+
+Switzerland is known for its neutrality. A country is neutral when it does not take sides among the countries who are at war.[8] Switzerland has been neutral since 1815.  Many international organizations are in Switzerland. The United Nations has a main office (but not its headquarters) in Geneva. Its predecessor organization, the League of Nations, was headquartered in Geneva.
+
+There are four official languages in Switzerland: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Some cantons and even towns have two languages spoken in them, and the largest canton by area, Graubünden, has three. About 2/3 of the population speak German; French is spoken in the west of the country, while Italian is spoken in the canton of Ticino and Romansh in parts of Graubünden.
+
+The capital of Switzerland is Bern. The largest city of Switzerland is Zürich.
+
+To the north of Switzerland is Germany. East of Switzerland are Austria and Liechtenstein. To the south of Switzerland is Italy. To the west of Switzerland is France.
+
+The area of Switzerland is 41,285 km². The confederation is divided into 23 full states called cantons. All 26 cantons are: Aargau, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Berne, Fribourg, Geneva, Glarus, Graubünden,  Jura, Lucerne, Neuchâtel, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Ticino, Uri, Valais, Vaud, Zug, and Zürich.
+
+The mountains are very tall in the center and south of Switzerland. About 60% of Switzerland is in the Alps area. Only few people live here. The highest mountain is the Dufour Peak at 4,634 m.
+
+Many of the mountains have ice all year. This ice is called glaciers. The rivers Rhine, Rhône, and many other rivers start in the mountains of Switzerland.
+
+There are many lakes in Switzerland. The biggest lakes are all in the north and west: Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), Lake Zürich, Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Constance (Bodensee).
+
+Mountains in the north of Switzerland are fewer and smaller. That is why most Swiss people live in cities and towns in the north. The Jura mountains are in the northwest of Switzerland.
+
+Switzerland has 2,485 villages, towns and cities.
+
+The largest cities are:
+
+There are about 8.4 million people in Switzerland. About 64% of the people speak Swiss German (German Alemannic) as their first language, in northern and central Switzerland. 19% of the people speak French as their first language, mainly in the west of Switzerland. 8% of the people speak Italian, in the south of Switzerland. Only 1% of the people speak Romansh, in the southeastern part of Switzerland.[9] Romansh is an old language that is similar to Latin.
+
+The German-speaking people of Switzerland do not actually speak "German" as their native language. Swiss people speak something called Alemannic which has its own writing language and grammar but still is normally considered a German dialect. Alemannic may be difficult for Germans to understand. Swiss people do write like the people from Germany and also speak standard German very well, especially in the larger cities.
+
+About 23% of the people in Switzerland do not come from Switzerland.[10] They come from other places to usually work in Switzerland.
+
+The religion of most people in Switzerland is Christianity. 43% of the population follow Catholicism. 35% of the population follow Protestantism. 2% follow Eastern Orthodoxy. The religion of 4% of the population is Islam. The rest follow other religions, or they have no religion.
+
+Switzerland is famous for its chocolate, cheese, banking system, watches and mountains.
+
+In 1291, people from Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden wanted to be free. They signed a contract to work together called the Eternal Alliance. Together, they could be free from the people of Habsburg, who were very strong. In 1315 the people from the Eternal Alliance fought the Habsburgs in battles at Morgarten, Sempach and Näfels. The people of the Eternal Alliance won all the battles.
+
+People from other areas signed the contract and joined the Eternal Alliance. More and more people worked together to be free. In 1648, other countries from Europe made an agreement that Switzerland was free. The name of this agreement was the Peace of Westphalia. More areas came to be part of Switzerland.
+
+In 1798, France invaded Switzerland.  The ruler of France was Napoleon.  He changed many laws.  In 1815 Switzerland again became independent from France.  Other countries agreed at the Congress of Vienna that Switzerland was free and neutral.
+
+The constitution of Switzerland that was made after a short civil war in 1848 was replaced in 1999. Switzerland did not fight in World War I or World War II. Since 2002, Switzerland is part of the United Nations.  It did not join the United Nations for 57 years because of its neutrality.
+
+Switzerland is a republic. Switzerland does not have the same kind of president as the United States or France. Seven people (called ministers) do the job of president. They are called the Federal Council in English, Bundesrat in German, Conseil Fédéral in French, Consiglio Federale in Italian and Cussegl Federal in Romansh. Every year one of these people is made president. The president is not more important than the other six people. At present 3 of the 7 people are women.
+
+The seven people are:
+
+There are two parts of parliament in Switzerland. The Council of States and the National Council. Only both together can make laws. There are 46 people in the Council of States. Every full canton of Switzerland can send 2 people. There are 200 people in the National Council. The biggest canton sends most people to the National Council. The smallest 6 cantons can only send one person to the National Council.
+
+The people of Switzerland can collect signatures if they do not like a new law or a law change. This is called a referendum. If enough people sign a referendum, the people vote. The people can also collect signatures to change the constitution. This is called an initiative. The constitution is the basic law of a country.
+
+Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, but it is member of the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA). The EFTA makes trade with other countries in Europe easier. In 1999 Switzerland and the European Union made a contract. This contract makes trade even easier. They recently made two other contracts.
+
+The banks of Switzerland and the insurance companies in Switzerland together produce eleven per cent of the gross domestic product. Tourism is important in Switzerland. There are many places for tourists. Davos, St. Moritz, Pontresina and Flims are in Switzerland. These towns are important both in winter (for skiing) and in summer. Tourists also like the cities of Lucerne, Geneva, and Zürich.
+
+In 2011 the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland directly and indirectly employed about 135,000 people.[11] The companies Novartis and Roche are the second and third largest pharma companies in the world. They both have invented many life saving drugs because of well developed research and development facilities.
+
+The literature of Switzerland is divided according to the language used. Most Swiss literature was written in German from 1291 until 1798. French became popular in Bern and elsewhere in the 18th century and many words also in the German speaking parts of Switzerland come from the French and are not known to Germans. Italian language and Romansch-Latin literature are less common in Switzerland.
+
+Heidi, a book for children by Johanna Spyri, is the most famous book of Switzerland.[12] It is in the mountains in Graubünden.[13]
+
+Skiing, snowboarding and mountaineering are among the most popular sports in Switzerland. Because of the large mountain range the nature of the country is well suited for such activities.[14] Bobsleigh was invented in St. Moritz.[15] The first world ski championships were held in Mürren (1931) and St. Moritz (1934). St. Moritz hosted the second Winter Olympic Games in 1928 and in 1948. Among the most successful skiers and world champions are Pirmin Zurbriggen and Didier Cuche.
+
+Many Swiss are fans of football. The national team or 'Nati' is widely supported. Switzerland was the joint host, with Austria, of the Euro 2008 tournament. Many Swiss also follow ice hockey. In April 2009, Switzerland hosted the 2009 IIHF World Championship for the 10th time.[16] The National League A is the most attended league in Europe.[17]
+
+The many lakes in the country make Switzerland a good place for sailing. The largest, Lake Geneva, is the home of the sailing team Alinghi.  They were the first European team to win the America's Cup in 2003.  They also won in 2007. Tennis has become more popular. Swiss players such as Martina Hingis and Roger Federer have won multiple Grand Slams.
+
+Motorsport racecourses and events were banned in Switzerland after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. There were exceptions for events such as Hillclimbing. This ban was overturned in June 2007.[19] During this period, the country still had successful racing drivers such as Clay Regazzoni, Sebastian Buemi, Jo Siffert and successful World Touring Car Championship driver Alain Menu. Switzerland also won the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in 2007–08 with driver Neel Jani. Swiss motorcycle racer Thomas Lüthi won the 2005 MotoGP World Championship in the 125cc category.
+
+Traditional sports include Swiss wrestling or "Schwingen". It is an old tradition from the rural central cantons and considered the national sport by some. Hornussen is another native Swiss sport. It is like a cross between baseball and golf.[20] Steinstossen is the Swiss version of stone put, a competition in throwing a heavy stone. It is recorded to have taken place in Basel in the 13th century. It is also central to the Unspunnenfest, first held in 1805.[21]
+
+Aargau  · Appenzell Innerrhoden  · Appenzell Ausserrhoden  · Basel-Stadt  · Basel-Landschaft  · Bern  · Fribourg  · Geneva  · Glarus  · Graubünden  · Jura  · Lucerne  · Neuchâtel  · Nidwalden  · Obwalden  · Schaffhausen  · Schwyz  · Solothurn  · St. Gallen  · Thurgau  · Ticino  · Uri  · Valais  · Vaud  · Zug  · Zürich

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+Science is what we do to find out about the natural world. Natural sciences include physics, chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy. Science uses mathematics and logic, which are sometimes called "formal sciences". Natural science makes observations and experiments. Science produces accurate facts, scientific laws and theories.[1][2] 'Science' also refers to the large amount of knowledge that has been found using this process.[3][4]
+
+Research uses the scientific method. Scientific research uses hypotheses based on ideas or earlier knowledge, which can be categorized through different topics. Then those hypotheses are tested by experiments.
+
+People who study and research science and try to find out everything about it are called scientists.  Scientists study things by looking at them very carefully, by measuring them, and by doing experiments and tests.  Scientists try to explain why things act the way they do, and predict what will happen.
+
+Today, "science" usually refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not just the knowledge itself. It is mainly about the phenomena of the material world.[5] In the 17th and 18th centuries scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of laws of nature such as Newton's laws of motion. And over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself, as a way to study the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology.
+
+It was in the 19th century also that the term scientist was created by William Whewell. He meant it to distinguish those who sought knowledge on nature from those who sought other types of knowledge.[6]
+
+The scientific method is the name given to the methods used by scientists to find knowledge. The main features of the scientific method are:
+
+A famous example of science in action was the expedition led by Arthur Eddington to Principe Island in Africa in 1919. He went there to record the positions of stars around the Sun during a solar eclipse. The observation of star positions showed that the apparent star positions close to the Sun were changed. In effect, the light passing the Sun was pulled towards the Sun by gravitation. This confirmed predictions of gravitational lensing made by Albert Einstein in the general theory of relativity, published in 1915. Eddington's observations were considered to be the first solid evidence in favour of Einstein's theory. Had the observations resulted differently, this would have counted against Einstein's theory, and perhaps refuted it (shown it was wrong).
+
+Discoveries in fundamental science can be world-changing. For example:
+
+Not everyone completely agrees about how science works.  Some philosophers and scientists say that scientific theories are only accepted for the time being. They last so long as they are the best explanation. When theories no longer explain the data, they are discarded and replaced. Or, sometimes scientists will make a theory better rather than discard it, or they will keep on using the theory hoping that it will be made better eventually.
+
+Science is a way to get knowledge by discarding what is not true.
+
+Scientists must be very careful to make explanations that fit well with what they observe and measure.  They compete to provide better explanations.  An explanation might be interesting or pleasing, but if it does not agree with what other scientists really see and measure, they will try to find a better explanation.
+
+Before a scientific article is published, other scientists read the article and decide whether the explanations make sense from the data.  This is called peer review.  After articles are published, other scientists will also check if the same experiments, observations or tests produce the same data again. Peer review and repeating experiments are the only way to be sure the knowledge is correct.
+
+Science makes models of nature, models of our universe, and medicine.  There are many different sciences with their own names.  However it is not right to say "science says" any one thing.  Science is a process, not just the facts and rules believed at one time.
+
+
+
+
+
+References

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+The Ballets Russes were a company of ballet dancers whose full title was Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev. They became extremely famous in Europe in the early part of the 20th century.
+
+The group was formed and directed by the Russian Sergei Diaghilev. The Ballets Russes had more influence on ballet and ballet music than any other ballet company of their time. The dancers were from Russia, but the group travelled throughout Europe, spending a lot of their time based in Paris. Stravinsky was one of the many composers who wrote ballet music for them.
+
+Sergei Diaghilev was an impresario who was extremely good at spotting good dancers and helping them to rise to great standards. He had very good taste in art and music and inspired some great composers to write music for his dancers. He got some of the most famous painters of his time to make set designs for his productions.
+
+The group was started in 1909. By 1911 they had become a group who toured regularly. Many of the dancers had come from the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. They adapted the productions from the Mariinsky Theatre, performing ballets such as Prince Igor, Cleopatra and Le Festin and Les Sylphides.
+
+During the World War I they were cut off from any contact with Russia. During these years they experimented with many new ideas. Productions such as Les Biches and Le Train Bleu were about the fashionable society around them. At the same time the company also had productions which reflected Russian folklore, Greek legends and the Orient.
+
+Their fame continued after the war.
+
+When Diaghilev died suddenly in 1929 the Ballets Russes broke up and the dancers moved to other companies. Some of them formed the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, who travelled to America and influenced dancing there.
+
+The company worked with several very famous choreographers such as Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Leonide Massine, and the young George Balanchine. Nijinsky’s dances reflect the art movement called Expressionism. Many of his new ideas could be seen in L'Apres-midi d'un Faune and The Rite of Spring.
+
+The Ballets Russes had many famous dancers. Many of them were from the Russian Imperial Theatres and they came to dance for Ballets Russes during the summer months. Some of the great dancers include Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Olga Spessivtzeva, Mathilde Kschessinska, Ida Rubinstein, Bronislava Nijinska, Lydia Lopokova and Alicia Markova.
+
+The company was particularly influential because they treated male dancers as important. Up until this time the female dancers had much more attention than the male dancers. Among the male dancers were Michel Fokine, Serge Lifar, Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, Adolphe Bolm, and, especially, Vaslav Nijinsky who became the greatest dancer of his time.
+
+The most famous music composed for Ballets Russes was that by the composer Igor Stravinsky. His ballets include The Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring, Les Noces and Apollon musagète. The first time that The Rite of Spring was performed many in the audience hated it and booed and started to fight. Others thought it was brilliant. Stravinsky's music was original and shocking, and Nijinsky's choreography went beyond classical ballet technique. The audience found it difficult to understand the music and dance. They were used to the romantic music and classical ballet of the nineteenth century.
+
+Diaghilev also used music which had already been composed. This included music by Debussy, Ravel, Darius Milhaud, Prokofiev and other famous composers of the time.
+
+The artists and designers who worked for the ballet included some of the 20th century's most famous names. Picasso, Bakst, Braque, Matisse, Coco Chanel, Miró, Dali, and Utrillo were some of the best-known.

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+Science is what we do to find out about the natural world. Natural sciences include physics, chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy. Science uses mathematics and logic, which are sometimes called "formal sciences". Natural science makes observations and experiments. Science produces accurate facts, scientific laws and theories.[1][2] 'Science' also refers to the large amount of knowledge that has been found using this process.[3][4]
+
+Research uses the scientific method. Scientific research uses hypotheses based on ideas or earlier knowledge, which can be categorized through different topics. Then those hypotheses are tested by experiments.
+
+People who study and research science and try to find out everything about it are called scientists.  Scientists study things by looking at them very carefully, by measuring them, and by doing experiments and tests.  Scientists try to explain why things act the way they do, and predict what will happen.
+
+Today, "science" usually refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not just the knowledge itself. It is mainly about the phenomena of the material world.[5] In the 17th and 18th centuries scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of laws of nature such as Newton's laws of motion. And over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself, as a way to study the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology.
+
+It was in the 19th century also that the term scientist was created by William Whewell. He meant it to distinguish those who sought knowledge on nature from those who sought other types of knowledge.[6]
+
+The scientific method is the name given to the methods used by scientists to find knowledge. The main features of the scientific method are:
+
+A famous example of science in action was the expedition led by Arthur Eddington to Principe Island in Africa in 1919. He went there to record the positions of stars around the Sun during a solar eclipse. The observation of star positions showed that the apparent star positions close to the Sun were changed. In effect, the light passing the Sun was pulled towards the Sun by gravitation. This confirmed predictions of gravitational lensing made by Albert Einstein in the general theory of relativity, published in 1915. Eddington's observations were considered to be the first solid evidence in favour of Einstein's theory. Had the observations resulted differently, this would have counted against Einstein's theory, and perhaps refuted it (shown it was wrong).
+
+Discoveries in fundamental science can be world-changing. For example:
+
+Not everyone completely agrees about how science works.  Some philosophers and scientists say that scientific theories are only accepted for the time being. They last so long as they are the best explanation. When theories no longer explain the data, they are discarded and replaced. Or, sometimes scientists will make a theory better rather than discard it, or they will keep on using the theory hoping that it will be made better eventually.
+
+Science is a way to get knowledge by discarding what is not true.
+
+Scientists must be very careful to make explanations that fit well with what they observe and measure.  They compete to provide better explanations.  An explanation might be interesting or pleasing, but if it does not agree with what other scientists really see and measure, they will try to find a better explanation.
+
+Before a scientific article is published, other scientists read the article and decide whether the explanations make sense from the data.  This is called peer review.  After articles are published, other scientists will also check if the same experiments, observations or tests produce the same data again. Peer review and repeating experiments are the only way to be sure the knowledge is correct.
+
+Science makes models of nature, models of our universe, and medicine.  There are many different sciences with their own names.  However it is not right to say "science says" any one thing.  Science is a process, not just the facts and rules believed at one time.
+
+
+
+
+
+References

ensimple/5311.html.txt

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+A scientist is a person who studies or has mastered the field in science. A scientist tries to understand how our world, or other things, work. Scientists make observations, ask questions and do extensive research work in finding the answers to many questions others may not know about. Scientist has searched many things
+
+Scientists may work in laboratories for governments, companies, schools and research institutions. Some scientists teach at universities and other places and train people to become scientists. Scientists often make experiments to find out more about reality, and sometimes may repeat experiments or use control groups. Scientists who are doing applied science try to use scientific knowledge to improve the world.
+
+Scientists can work in different areas of science. 
+Here are some examples:
+

ensimple/5312.html.txt

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+Scouting (sometimes called the Scout Movement) is a youth movement. It was started in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell as a movement for boys.
+
+Baden-Powell took many ideas from the experiences he made with the Mafeking Cadet Corps. This corps was a paramilitary group made of boys. It was formed during a siege in the Second Boer War. The boys mainly carried messages. This was so the soldiers could focus on defending the city.
+
+Originally, the Scout movement was for boys only. A similar movement for girls, called "Girl Guides" was started in 1910. In most countries there are associations for Scouts and for Girl Guides. Today the Scouts often accept girls, too.
+
+In the Scout movement, people learn to work together to achieve a goal. They also train their character to become better adults.
+
+Usually Scouts give a promise to live by certain rules, and to help others when they can.
+
+Scouts spend their time outdoors, whenever possible.
+
+In 2005, there were more than 28 million Boy Scouts and over 10 million Girl Guides. They came from 216 different countries. There were only six countries with no Scout movement in 2006. They were Andorra, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Laos, Myanmar and North Korea.[1]
+
+In Cuba, there was a Scout organisation, but the Communist government replaced it by the José Martí Pioneer Organization, which is similar to Scouts, but without the international brotherhood and the peace mission.
+
+Scouting organisations have been banned in People's Republic of China. They have been replaced by Young Pioneers of China and Communist Youth League of China. These organisations are a bit similar to Scouts, but without the international brotherhood and the peace mission. There is a Scout Association in Hong Kong and one in Macau. Hong Kong and Macau are Special Autonomous Regions of the People's Republic of China, so the Scout associations there are still allowed to exist. In the Republic of China (Taiwan) Scouting was never banned.
+
+There are no Scouting organisations in Myanmar, but there are a few Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (headed by the US Scout movement) in Yangon.
+
+Robert Baden-Powell was a military officer. He was stationed in India and Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. Since his youth, he was fond of woodcraft and military scouting. He therefore showed his men how to survive in the wilderness. He noticed that if he taught the soldiers to develop independence, they would no longer follow the orders given by their officers blindly.[2]
+
+In 1896, during the Second Matabele War, Baden-Powell first met and became friends with the American-born British Army Chief of Scouts Frederick Russell Burnham. From Burnham he learned the ways of cowboy and Indian scouts of the Western United States, he started to wear a scout hat like the one worn by Burnham and he discussed with Burnham a scout training programme for boys.[3][4][5] Three years later during the Second Boer War, Baden-Powell was besieged in the small town of Mafeking by a much larger Boer army (the Siege of Mafeking).[6] The Mafeking Cadet Corps was a group of youths that supported the troops. The cadets carried messages. This freed the men for military duties. It also kept the boys occupied during the long siege. The Cadet Corps performed well, helping in the defence of the town (1899–1900). This experience was one of the many factors that inspired Baden-Powell to form the Scouting movement.[7][8][9] Each member received a badge that showed a combined compass point and spearhead. The badge's logo was similar to the fleur-de-lis that Scouting later adopted as its international symbol.
+
+In the United Kingdom the public followed his struggle to hold Mafeking through newspapers. After the siege, Baden-Powell had become a national hero. This pushed the sales of a small instruction book he had written about military scouting, Aids to Scouting.
+
+On his return to England he noticed the large interest of boys in this book, which was also used by teachers and youth organisations.[10] Several people suggested to him to rewrite this book for boys, especially during an inspection of the Boys' Brigade. This brigade was a large youth movement, drilled with military precision. Baden-Powell thought this would not be attractive and suggested that it could grow much larger when scouting would be used.[11] He studied other schemes, parts of which he used for Scouting.
+
+(Simpler English version, where needed)
+
+(When these laws were made in 1907, there were no Girl Scouts; of course the laws apply to Girl Scouts all the same)
+
+In his original book on boy scouting, General Baden-Powell introduced the Scout promise, as follows:[12]
+
+On my honour I promise that---
+
+While taking this oath the scout will stand, holding his right hand raised level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on the nail of the little finger and the other three fingers upright, pointing upwards:---
+This is the scout's salute and secret sign.
+
+(This was later adapted to different countries, and organisations)
+
+Since the Scouts were formed, other people have tried to form scout-like movements. These movements are a bit like the Scouts but they put more weight on different things. There are for example Scout-like movements that focus more on the fact that the young people should get a good education in religious matters. The movements that have been formed in countries such as Cuba or China are much like Scouts; they leave out some elements though, that the national governments thought would harm the country.

ensimple/5313.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+Scouting (sometimes called the Scout Movement) is a youth movement. It was started in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell as a movement for boys.
+
+Baden-Powell took many ideas from the experiences he made with the Mafeking Cadet Corps. This corps was a paramilitary group made of boys. It was formed during a siege in the Second Boer War. The boys mainly carried messages. This was so the soldiers could focus on defending the city.
+
+Originally, the Scout movement was for boys only. A similar movement for girls, called "Girl Guides" was started in 1910. In most countries there are associations for Scouts and for Girl Guides. Today the Scouts often accept girls, too.
+
+In the Scout movement, people learn to work together to achieve a goal. They also train their character to become better adults.
+
+Usually Scouts give a promise to live by certain rules, and to help others when they can.
+
+Scouts spend their time outdoors, whenever possible.
+
+In 2005, there were more than 28 million Boy Scouts and over 10 million Girl Guides. They came from 216 different countries. There were only six countries with no Scout movement in 2006. They were Andorra, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Laos, Myanmar and North Korea.[1]
+
+In Cuba, there was a Scout organisation, but the Communist government replaced it by the José Martí Pioneer Organization, which is similar to Scouts, but without the international brotherhood and the peace mission.
+
+Scouting organisations have been banned in People's Republic of China. They have been replaced by Young Pioneers of China and Communist Youth League of China. These organisations are a bit similar to Scouts, but without the international brotherhood and the peace mission. There is a Scout Association in Hong Kong and one in Macau. Hong Kong and Macau are Special Autonomous Regions of the People's Republic of China, so the Scout associations there are still allowed to exist. In the Republic of China (Taiwan) Scouting was never banned.
+
+There are no Scouting organisations in Myanmar, but there are a few Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (headed by the US Scout movement) in Yangon.
+
+Robert Baden-Powell was a military officer. He was stationed in India and Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. Since his youth, he was fond of woodcraft and military scouting. He therefore showed his men how to survive in the wilderness. He noticed that if he taught the soldiers to develop independence, they would no longer follow the orders given by their officers blindly.[2]
+
+In 1896, during the Second Matabele War, Baden-Powell first met and became friends with the American-born British Army Chief of Scouts Frederick Russell Burnham. From Burnham he learned the ways of cowboy and Indian scouts of the Western United States, he started to wear a scout hat like the one worn by Burnham and he discussed with Burnham a scout training programme for boys.[3][4][5] Three years later during the Second Boer War, Baden-Powell was besieged in the small town of Mafeking by a much larger Boer army (the Siege of Mafeking).[6] The Mafeking Cadet Corps was a group of youths that supported the troops. The cadets carried messages. This freed the men for military duties. It also kept the boys occupied during the long siege. The Cadet Corps performed well, helping in the defence of the town (1899–1900). This experience was one of the many factors that inspired Baden-Powell to form the Scouting movement.[7][8][9] Each member received a badge that showed a combined compass point and spearhead. The badge's logo was similar to the fleur-de-lis that Scouting later adopted as its international symbol.
+
+In the United Kingdom the public followed his struggle to hold Mafeking through newspapers. After the siege, Baden-Powell had become a national hero. This pushed the sales of a small instruction book he had written about military scouting, Aids to Scouting.
+
+On his return to England he noticed the large interest of boys in this book, which was also used by teachers and youth organisations.[10] Several people suggested to him to rewrite this book for boys, especially during an inspection of the Boys' Brigade. This brigade was a large youth movement, drilled with military precision. Baden-Powell thought this would not be attractive and suggested that it could grow much larger when scouting would be used.[11] He studied other schemes, parts of which he used for Scouting.
+
+(Simpler English version, where needed)
+
+(When these laws were made in 1907, there were no Girl Scouts; of course the laws apply to Girl Scouts all the same)
+
+In his original book on boy scouting, General Baden-Powell introduced the Scout promise, as follows:[12]
+
+On my honour I promise that---
+
+While taking this oath the scout will stand, holding his right hand raised level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on the nail of the little finger and the other three fingers upright, pointing upwards:---
+This is the scout's salute and secret sign.
+
+(This was later adapted to different countries, and organisations)
+
+Since the Scouts were formed, other people have tried to form scout-like movements. These movements are a bit like the Scouts but they put more weight on different things. There are for example Scout-like movements that focus more on the fact that the young people should get a good education in religious matters. The movements that have been formed in countries such as Cuba or China are much like Scouts; they leave out some elements though, that the national governments thought would harm the country.

ensimple/5314.html.txt

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+Scratch is a slide-and-drop programming language for children designed to create things such as games, animations, platform games, clicker games.[1] It allows them to explore and experiment with the ideas of computer programming by using "blocks" that are put together to make simple code.[2]
+
+Although made for children 8-16,[3] Scratch can be used to produce simple or complex programs so it is worth learning to use by adults as well.
+
+Scratch is translated into 70+ languages and is used in homes, schools, and after-school clubs in every country in the world.[4] Scratch is often used in teaching coding, computer science, and computational thinking. Teachers also use it as a tool across many other subjects including math, science, history, geography, and art.
+
+The area where the user can interact with is called the stage area. The stage area features all of the animations, graphics, drawings, and among other visual features. The list of sprites on screen are placed below the stage area to show a list of sprites that are usable for the program. The stage is organized through x and y coordinates, with the center coordinate (0, 0) placed in the center of the stage. The stage is 480 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall, with a range between x=-240 to x=240 in width and a range between y=-180 and y=180 in height.[5]
+
+From left to right, in the upper left area of the screen, there is a stage area, featuring the results (i.e., animations, turtle graphics, etc., everything either in small or normal size, full-screen also available) and all sprites thumbnails listed in the bottom area. The stage uses x and y coordinates, with 0,0 being the stage center. The stage is 480 pixels wide, and 360 pixels tall, x:240 being the far right, x:-240 being the far left, y:180 being the top, and y:-180 being the bottom.[5]
+

ensimple/5315.html.txt

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+Scratch is a slide-and-drop programming language for children designed to create things such as games, animations, platform games, clicker games.[1] It allows them to explore and experiment with the ideas of computer programming by using "blocks" that are put together to make simple code.[2]
+
+Although made for children 8-16,[3] Scratch can be used to produce simple or complex programs so it is worth learning to use by adults as well.
+
+Scratch is translated into 70+ languages and is used in homes, schools, and after-school clubs in every country in the world.[4] Scratch is often used in teaching coding, computer science, and computational thinking. Teachers also use it as a tool across many other subjects including math, science, history, geography, and art.
+
+The area where the user can interact with is called the stage area. The stage area features all of the animations, graphics, drawings, and among other visual features. The list of sprites on screen are placed below the stage area to show a list of sprites that are usable for the program. The stage is organized through x and y coordinates, with the center coordinate (0, 0) placed in the center of the stage. The stage is 480 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall, with a range between x=-240 to x=240 in width and a range between y=-180 and y=180 in height.[5]
+
+From left to right, in the upper left area of the screen, there is a stage area, featuring the results (i.e., animations, turtle graphics, etc., everything either in small or normal size, full-screen also available) and all sprites thumbnails listed in the bottom area. The stage uses x and y coordinates, with 0,0 being the stage center. The stage is 480 pixels wide, and 360 pixels tall, x:240 being the far right, x:-240 being the far left, y:180 being the top, and y:-180 being the bottom.[5]
+

ensimple/5316.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Sculpture is a type of art. It must be three-dimensional (meaning it must have height, width, and depth like a cube). There are many kinds of sculptures from different parts of the world, like China and India, or from different time periods, like the renaissance and modern times. The pictures below are of sculptures:

ensimple/5317.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Sculpture is a type of art. It must be three-dimensional (meaning it must have height, width, and depth like a cube). There are many kinds of sculptures from different parts of the world, like China and India, or from different time periods, like the renaissance and modern times. The pictures below are of sculptures:

ensimple/5318.html.txt

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+Poverty means not having enough money for basic needs such as food, drinking water, shelter, or toileteries. Many people in different countries live in poverty, especially in developing areas of West and Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and some parts of Asia.
+
+There are different ways to measure poverty. The World Bank says that extreme poverty is when someone has less than US$1 a day to live on (that dollar is an ideal one). It has been changed to rule out certain effects such as inflation, meaning that prices of things rise higher than what a person is paid, and other price level differences. Moderate poverty is when people have to live on less than $2 a day. In the year 2001, 1.1 billion people were seen as extremely poor, and 2.7 billion were seen as moderately poor.
+
+In the developed world this does not apply. There, many people are seen as the working poor. They have a job, but do not earn enough money for basic things such as food and a home. In most developed countries, people without jobs receive money from the government, but this is often less than they need for a comfortable life.
+
+There are different ways to tell if a country is rich or poor. The Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, and Human Development Index, or HDI, are two of those measures. Gross Domestic Product is the money made from trade from inside the country.
+
+HDI, meaning the Human Development Index is a different matter. It is determined by life expectancy and adult literacy rates. Places in Africa like Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone are the poorest, with Sierra Leone having the lowest HDI ranking in the world.
+
+Poverty is a hurdle in the way of a country's progress. One way of helping lower poverty is by educating poor people so that they can start contributing to a nation's economic development. Education teaches the poor about their rights and may show them the path to become an important part of the growth and expansion of the country. Vienna Declaration also tells this fact.
+
+One of the most important things that is needed to make a country richer is for the Government to want to help poor people do better. Without this, it is hard for people to become better off.
+
+“The poor are starving and their hunger keeps them in poverty.” a quote from Nathan Jones
+

ensimple/5319.html.txt

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+A bucket is a container with a wide open top and a handle that is mainly used for carrying liquids.  In some cases, solids may also be carried in a bucket (like sand which is hard to carry in your hands).
+
+Some buckets are used for work, and some more for leisure, as seen here . A bucket used for work is often made of a strong material such as iron or steel and is used to carry things like coal or soil. A bucket used for leisure, e.g. for making sandcastles, is normally made of plastic.
+
+In rare cases, a bucket may be worn as a piece of clothing, people may wear a bucket on their heads for humorous reasons. Buckethead is a famous example of this.

ensimple/532.html.txt

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+The Ballets Russes were a company of ballet dancers whose full title was Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev. They became extremely famous in Europe in the early part of the 20th century.
+
+The group was formed and directed by the Russian Sergei Diaghilev. The Ballets Russes had more influence on ballet and ballet music than any other ballet company of their time. The dancers were from Russia, but the group travelled throughout Europe, spending a lot of their time based in Paris. Stravinsky was one of the many composers who wrote ballet music for them.
+
+Sergei Diaghilev was an impresario who was extremely good at spotting good dancers and helping them to rise to great standards. He had very good taste in art and music and inspired some great composers to write music for his dancers. He got some of the most famous painters of his time to make set designs for his productions.
+
+The group was started in 1909. By 1911 they had become a group who toured regularly. Many of the dancers had come from the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. They adapted the productions from the Mariinsky Theatre, performing ballets such as Prince Igor, Cleopatra and Le Festin and Les Sylphides.
+
+During the World War I they were cut off from any contact with Russia. During these years they experimented with many new ideas. Productions such as Les Biches and Le Train Bleu were about the fashionable society around them. At the same time the company also had productions which reflected Russian folklore, Greek legends and the Orient.
+
+Their fame continued after the war.
+
+When Diaghilev died suddenly in 1929 the Ballets Russes broke up and the dancers moved to other companies. Some of them formed the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, who travelled to America and influenced dancing there.
+
+The company worked with several very famous choreographers such as Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Leonide Massine, and the young George Balanchine. Nijinsky’s dances reflect the art movement called Expressionism. Many of his new ideas could be seen in L'Apres-midi d'un Faune and The Rite of Spring.
+
+The Ballets Russes had many famous dancers. Many of them were from the Russian Imperial Theatres and they came to dance for Ballets Russes during the summer months. Some of the great dancers include Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Olga Spessivtzeva, Mathilde Kschessinska, Ida Rubinstein, Bronislava Nijinska, Lydia Lopokova and Alicia Markova.
+
+The company was particularly influential because they treated male dancers as important. Up until this time the female dancers had much more attention than the male dancers. Among the male dancers were Michel Fokine, Serge Lifar, Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, Adolphe Bolm, and, especially, Vaslav Nijinsky who became the greatest dancer of his time.
+
+The most famous music composed for Ballets Russes was that by the composer Igor Stravinsky. His ballets include The Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring, Les Noces and Apollon musagète. The first time that The Rite of Spring was performed many in the audience hated it and booed and started to fight. Others thought it was brilliant. Stravinsky's music was original and shocking, and Nijinsky's choreography went beyond classical ballet technique. The audience found it difficult to understand the music and dance. They were used to the romantic music and classical ballet of the nineteenth century.
+
+Diaghilev also used music which had already been composed. This included music by Debussy, Ravel, Darius Milhaud, Prokofiev and other famous composers of the time.
+
+The artists and designers who worked for the ballet included some of the 20th century's most famous names. Picasso, Bakst, Braque, Matisse, Coco Chanel, Miró, Dali, and Utrillo were some of the best-known.

ensimple/5320.html.txt

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+The Mesozoic was the geological era in which dinosaurs lived, as well as the first birds and mammals. It lasted about 186 million years, starting 252.2 mya (million years ago) with the P/Tr extinction and ending 66 mya with the K/T extinction (the one that killed dinosaurs).[1]
+
+Dinosaurs appeared around 231 mya (21 million years after the beginning of the Mesozoic). They evolved from early reptiles called the archosaurs (a group of which modern birds and crocodiles are still part).
+
+The Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras that make up the Phanerozoic eon.  Before the Mesozoic was the Palaeozoic era. The K/T extinction in 66 mya also marks the beginning of the Cenozoic era, the one we live in.
+
+The three Mesozoic periods were:

ensimple/5321.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+
+
+Pacific War
+
+Mediterranean and Middle East
+
+Other campaigns
+
+Contemporaneous wars
+
+World War II (WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries.  Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history.[1] Between 50 to 85 million people died.[2][3] The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
+
+The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937.[4] The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.
+
+The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and in that same year the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad. After that, the Allies started to fight back from all sides. The Axis were forced back in the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy.[5] In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and came into Germany from the west,[6] while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The war ended with the Allied victory.
+
+After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars.  The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.
+
+The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.
+
+The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries.[7][8][9][10] Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.
+
+The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.
+
+World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers.  Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed.  The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well.  The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism.  These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles.[11] The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies.[12]  The size of their army and navy was also limited,[13] while its air force was banned.
+
+In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war, thinking that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire.[14]
+
+After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began.[15] In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo,[16] while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead.[17] In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.[18]
+
+After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law.[19] Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force,[20] especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.
+
+In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries.[21] Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land.[22] But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender[23] or invaded by March 1939.[24] The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked.[25] Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years.[26] In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.[27]
+
+World War II began on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain, France, and the members of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany. They could not help Poland much and only sent a small French attack on Germany from the West.[28] The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland soon after Germany, on September 17.[29] Finally, Poland was divided.
+
+Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries.[30] Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939.[31] With peace, the world war broke out.[32] France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.[33]
+
+After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. While British soldiers were sent to the Continent, there were no big battles fought between two sides.[34] Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France.[35] Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill as Prime Minister of United Kingdom in May 1940 because the British were unhappy with his work.[36]
+
+On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics.[37] The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy,[38] and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
+
+By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them,[39] followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.[40][41]  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.[42]
+
+Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island,[43] but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.[44]  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.[45]
+
+In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania.[46] Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again.[47] Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May.[48] Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.[49]
+
+At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again.[50] Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941.[51] However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.[52]
+
+On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union.  During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July.[53] Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow.[54] It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.[55]
+
+By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west.[56] The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.[57]
+
+By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before.[58] However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.[59]
+
+In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies.[60] Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan.[61] Japan planned to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific so that it could get more resources.[62] But before any future invasion, it first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.[63] On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries.[64] This event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Western Allies and China to declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union remained neutral.[65] Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.
+
+By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese.[66] In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.
+
+Japan then began its plan to take over Papua New Guinea again,[67] while the United States planned to attack the Solomon Islands. The fight on Guadalcanal  began in September 1942 and involved a lot of troops and ships from both sides. It ended with the Japanese defeat in early 1943.[68]
+
+On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter[69] After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943.[70] Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk.[71]  Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.
+
+In August 1942, because of the Allied defense at El Alamein, the Axis army failed to take the town.  A new Allied offensive, drove the Axis west across Libya a few months later,[72] just after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa forced it to join the Allies.[73] This led to Axis defeat in the North African Campaign May 1943.[74]
+
+In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses.[75][76] Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome.[77] The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.[78][79]
+
+On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily. This resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month.[80] In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies.[81] Germany then took control of Italy and disarmed its army,[82] and built up many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion down.[83] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon created the German-occupied client state, Italian Social Republic.[84]
+
+Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.
+
+In early 1944, the Soviet army drove off the German army from Leningrad,[85] ending the longest and deadliest siege in history. After that, the Soviets began a big counter-attack. By May, the Soviets had retaken Crimea. With the attacks in Italy from September 1943, the Allies succeeded in capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, and made the German forces fall back.[86]
+
+On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .
+
+On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[87] Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets.[88] Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies.[89] Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.
+
+On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.[90]
+
+By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.
+
+Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini's death.[91] In his will, he appointed his navy commander, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, to be the President of Germany.[92]  Dönitz surrendered to the Allies, and opposed Hitler's will to have Germany continue fighting.
+
+German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.[93]
+
+In the Pacific, American forces arrived in the Philippines on June 1944. And by April 1945, American and Philippine forces had cleared much of the Japanese forces, but the fighting continued in some parts of the Philippines until the end of the war.[94] British and Chinese forces advanced in Northern Burma and captured Rangoon by May 3, 1945.[95] American forces then took Iwo Jima by March and Okinawa by June 1945.[96] Many Japanese cities were destroyed by Allied bombings, and Japanese imports were cut off by American submarines.
+
+The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there.[97] On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.[98]
+
+The Allies managed to occupy Austria and Germany. Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union controlled the Eastern part, and the Western Allies controlled the Western part. The Allies began denazification, removing Nazi ideas from public life in Germany,[99] and most high-ranking Nazis were captured and brought to a special court. Germany lost a quarter of the land it had in 1937, with the land given to Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets also took some parts of Poland[100][101][102] and Finland,[103] as well as three Baltic countries.[104][105]
+
+The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945,[106] to keep peace between countries in the world.[107] However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war[108] and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned  into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[109]
+
+In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950.[110] Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949.[111] The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.
+
+After the war, decolonization took place in many European colonies.[112] Bad economies and people wanting to rule themselves were the main reasons for that. In most cases, it happened peacefully, except in some countries, such as Indochina and Algeria.[113] In many regions, European withdrawal caused divisions among the people who had different ethnic groups or religions.[114]
+
+Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy.[115][116] It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) to help European countries. German,[117] Italian,[118][119] and French economies recovered.[120] However, the British economy was badly harmed[121] and continued to worsen for more than ten years.[122] The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over.[123] This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s.[124] China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.[125]
+
+There is no exact total number of deaths, because many were unrecorded. Many studies said that more than 60 million people died in the war, mostly civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people,[126] almost half of the recorded number.[127] This means that 25% of the Soviets were killed or wounded in the war.[128] About 85% of the total deaths were on the Allies side, and the other 15% were on the Axis. Mostly, people died because they were sick, hungry to death, bombed, or killed because of their ethnicity.
+
+The Nazis killed many groups of people they selected, known as The Holocaust. They exterminated Jews, and killed the Roma, Poles, Russians, homosexuals and other groups.[129] Around 11[130] to 17 million[131] civilians died. Around 7.5 million people were killed in China by the Japanese.[132] The most well-known Japanese crime is the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. There were reports that the Germans and Japanese tested biological weapons against civilians[133] and prisoners of war.[134]
+
+Although many of the Axis's crimes were brought to the first international court,[135] crimes caused by the Allies were not.
+
+Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy.[136] German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.
+
+Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%,[137] seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians.[138] More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories.[139] Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.[140]
+
+Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.
+
+The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor.[141] Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[142]
+
+Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis.[143] While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.[143]
+
+The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so.[144][145] Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.[146]
+
+As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind.  At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment.  In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships.  Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.
+
+In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan.[147][148] However, Allied bombings[149][150] and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.[151]
+
+In Britain, women also worked in gathering intelligence, at Bletchley Park and other places.  The mass evacuation of children also had a major impact on the lives of mothers during the war years.
+
+Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income.[152] In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.[153][154]
+
+In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers.[155] Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time.[156] During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end.  By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.[156]
+
+The war brought new methods for future wars.  The air forces improved greatly in fields such as air transport,[157] strategic bombing (to use bombs to destroy industry and morale),[158] as well as radar, and weapons for destroying aircraft. Jet aircraft were developed and would be used in worldwide air forces.[159]
+
+At sea, the war focused on using aircraft carriers and submarines. Aircraft carriers soon replaced battleships.[160][161][162] The important reason was they were cheaper.[163] Submarines, a deadly weapon since World War I,[164] also played an important part in the war. The British improved weapons for destroying submarines, such as sonar, while the Germans improved submarine tactics.[165]
+
+The style of war on the land changed from World War I to be more moveable. Tanks, which were used to support infantry, changed to a primary weapon.[166] The tank was improved in speed, armour and firepower during the war. At the start of the war, most commanders thought that using better tanks was the best way to fight enemy tanks.[167] However, early tanks could harm armour just a little. The German idea to avoid letting tanks fight one another meant tanks facing tanks rarely happened. This was a successful tactic used in Poland and France.[166] Ways to destroy tanks also improved. Even though vehicles became more used in the war, infantry remained the main part of the army,[168] and most equipped like in World War I.[169]
+
+Submachine guns became widely used.  They were especially used in cities and jungles.[169]  The assault rifle, a German development combining features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the main weapon for most armies after the war.[170]
+
+Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma.  Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.
+
+The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore.  Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.
+
+*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
+**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.
+
+Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces.  Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
+
+The Axis Powers
+
+Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
+
+The Allied Powers
+
+U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
+

ensimple/5322.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+
+
+Pacific War
+
+Mediterranean and Middle East
+
+Other campaigns
+
+Contemporaneous wars
+
+World War II (WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries.  Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history.[1] Between 50 to 85 million people died.[2][3] The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
+
+The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937.[4] The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.
+
+The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and in that same year the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad. After that, the Allies started to fight back from all sides. The Axis were forced back in the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy.[5] In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and came into Germany from the west,[6] while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The war ended with the Allied victory.
+
+After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars.  The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.
+
+The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.
+
+The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries.[7][8][9][10] Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.
+
+The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.
+
+World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers.  Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed.  The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well.  The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism.  These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles.[11] The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies.[12]  The size of their army and navy was also limited,[13] while its air force was banned.
+
+In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war, thinking that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire.[14]
+
+After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began.[15] In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo,[16] while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead.[17] In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.[18]
+
+After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law.[19] Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force,[20] especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.
+
+In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries.[21] Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land.[22] But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender[23] or invaded by March 1939.[24] The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked.[25] Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years.[26] In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.[27]
+
+World War II began on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain, France, and the members of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany. They could not help Poland much and only sent a small French attack on Germany from the West.[28] The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland soon after Germany, on September 17.[29] Finally, Poland was divided.
+
+Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries.[30] Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939.[31] With peace, the world war broke out.[32] France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.[33]
+
+After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. While British soldiers were sent to the Continent, there were no big battles fought between two sides.[34] Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France.[35] Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill as Prime Minister of United Kingdom in May 1940 because the British were unhappy with his work.[36]
+
+On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics.[37] The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy,[38] and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
+
+By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them,[39] followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.[40][41]  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.[42]
+
+Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island,[43] but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.[44]  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.[45]
+
+In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania.[46] Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again.[47] Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May.[48] Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.[49]
+
+At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again.[50] Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941.[51] However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.[52]
+
+On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union.  During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July.[53] Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow.[54] It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.[55]
+
+By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west.[56] The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.[57]
+
+By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before.[58] However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.[59]
+
+In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies.[60] Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan.[61] Japan planned to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific so that it could get more resources.[62] But before any future invasion, it first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.[63] On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries.[64] This event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Western Allies and China to declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union remained neutral.[65] Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.
+
+By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese.[66] In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.
+
+Japan then began its plan to take over Papua New Guinea again,[67] while the United States planned to attack the Solomon Islands. The fight on Guadalcanal  began in September 1942 and involved a lot of troops and ships from both sides. It ended with the Japanese defeat in early 1943.[68]
+
+On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter[69] After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943.[70] Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk.[71]  Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.
+
+In August 1942, because of the Allied defense at El Alamein, the Axis army failed to take the town.  A new Allied offensive, drove the Axis west across Libya a few months later,[72] just after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa forced it to join the Allies.[73] This led to Axis defeat in the North African Campaign May 1943.[74]
+
+In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses.[75][76] Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome.[77] The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.[78][79]
+
+On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily. This resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month.[80] In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies.[81] Germany then took control of Italy and disarmed its army,[82] and built up many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion down.[83] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon created the German-occupied client state, Italian Social Republic.[84]
+
+Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.
+
+In early 1944, the Soviet army drove off the German army from Leningrad,[85] ending the longest and deadliest siege in history. After that, the Soviets began a big counter-attack. By May, the Soviets had retaken Crimea. With the attacks in Italy from September 1943, the Allies succeeded in capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, and made the German forces fall back.[86]
+
+On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .
+
+On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[87] Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets.[88] Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies.[89] Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.
+
+On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.[90]
+
+By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.
+
+Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini's death.[91] In his will, he appointed his navy commander, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, to be the President of Germany.[92]  Dönitz surrendered to the Allies, and opposed Hitler's will to have Germany continue fighting.
+
+German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.[93]
+
+In the Pacific, American forces arrived in the Philippines on June 1944. And by April 1945, American and Philippine forces had cleared much of the Japanese forces, but the fighting continued in some parts of the Philippines until the end of the war.[94] British and Chinese forces advanced in Northern Burma and captured Rangoon by May 3, 1945.[95] American forces then took Iwo Jima by March and Okinawa by June 1945.[96] Many Japanese cities were destroyed by Allied bombings, and Japanese imports were cut off by American submarines.
+
+The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there.[97] On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.[98]
+
+The Allies managed to occupy Austria and Germany. Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union controlled the Eastern part, and the Western Allies controlled the Western part. The Allies began denazification, removing Nazi ideas from public life in Germany,[99] and most high-ranking Nazis were captured and brought to a special court. Germany lost a quarter of the land it had in 1937, with the land given to Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets also took some parts of Poland[100][101][102] and Finland,[103] as well as three Baltic countries.[104][105]
+
+The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945,[106] to keep peace between countries in the world.[107] However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war[108] and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned  into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[109]
+
+In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950.[110] Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949.[111] The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.
+
+After the war, decolonization took place in many European colonies.[112] Bad economies and people wanting to rule themselves were the main reasons for that. In most cases, it happened peacefully, except in some countries, such as Indochina and Algeria.[113] In many regions, European withdrawal caused divisions among the people who had different ethnic groups or religions.[114]
+
+Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy.[115][116] It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) to help European countries. German,[117] Italian,[118][119] and French economies recovered.[120] However, the British economy was badly harmed[121] and continued to worsen for more than ten years.[122] The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over.[123] This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s.[124] China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.[125]
+
+There is no exact total number of deaths, because many were unrecorded. Many studies said that more than 60 million people died in the war, mostly civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people,[126] almost half of the recorded number.[127] This means that 25% of the Soviets were killed or wounded in the war.[128] About 85% of the total deaths were on the Allies side, and the other 15% were on the Axis. Mostly, people died because they were sick, hungry to death, bombed, or killed because of their ethnicity.
+
+The Nazis killed many groups of people they selected, known as The Holocaust. They exterminated Jews, and killed the Roma, Poles, Russians, homosexuals and other groups.[129] Around 11[130] to 17 million[131] civilians died. Around 7.5 million people were killed in China by the Japanese.[132] The most well-known Japanese crime is the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. There were reports that the Germans and Japanese tested biological weapons against civilians[133] and prisoners of war.[134]
+
+Although many of the Axis's crimes were brought to the first international court,[135] crimes caused by the Allies were not.
+
+Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy.[136] German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.
+
+Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%,[137] seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians.[138] More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories.[139] Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.[140]
+
+Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.
+
+The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor.[141] Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[142]
+
+Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis.[143] While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.[143]
+
+The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so.[144][145] Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.[146]
+
+As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind.  At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment.  In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships.  Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.
+
+In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan.[147][148] However, Allied bombings[149][150] and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.[151]
+
+In Britain, women also worked in gathering intelligence, at Bletchley Park and other places.  The mass evacuation of children also had a major impact on the lives of mothers during the war years.
+
+Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income.[152] In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.[153][154]
+
+In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers.[155] Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time.[156] During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end.  By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.[156]
+
+The war brought new methods for future wars.  The air forces improved greatly in fields such as air transport,[157] strategic bombing (to use bombs to destroy industry and morale),[158] as well as radar, and weapons for destroying aircraft. Jet aircraft were developed and would be used in worldwide air forces.[159]
+
+At sea, the war focused on using aircraft carriers and submarines. Aircraft carriers soon replaced battleships.[160][161][162] The important reason was they were cheaper.[163] Submarines, a deadly weapon since World War I,[164] also played an important part in the war. The British improved weapons for destroying submarines, such as sonar, while the Germans improved submarine tactics.[165]
+
+The style of war on the land changed from World War I to be more moveable. Tanks, which were used to support infantry, changed to a primary weapon.[166] The tank was improved in speed, armour and firepower during the war. At the start of the war, most commanders thought that using better tanks was the best way to fight enemy tanks.[167] However, early tanks could harm armour just a little. The German idea to avoid letting tanks fight one another meant tanks facing tanks rarely happened. This was a successful tactic used in Poland and France.[166] Ways to destroy tanks also improved. Even though vehicles became more used in the war, infantry remained the main part of the army,[168] and most equipped like in World War I.[169]
+
+Submachine guns became widely used.  They were especially used in cities and jungles.[169]  The assault rifle, a German development combining features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the main weapon for most armies after the war.[170]
+
+Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma.  Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.
+
+The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore.  Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.
+
+*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
+**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.
+
+Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces.  Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
+
+The Axis Powers
+
+Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
+
+The Allied Powers
+
+U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
+

ensimple/5323.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+
+
+Pacific War
+
+Mediterranean and Middle East
+
+Other campaigns
+
+Contemporaneous wars
+
+World War II (WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries.  Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history.[1] Between 50 to 85 million people died.[2][3] The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
+
+The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937.[4] The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.
+
+The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and in that same year the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad. After that, the Allies started to fight back from all sides. The Axis were forced back in the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy.[5] In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and came into Germany from the west,[6] while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The war ended with the Allied victory.
+
+After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars.  The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.
+
+The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.
+
+The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries.[7][8][9][10] Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.
+
+The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.
+
+World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers.  Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed.  The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well.  The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism.  These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles.[11] The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies.[12]  The size of their army and navy was also limited,[13] while its air force was banned.
+
+In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war, thinking that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire.[14]
+
+After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began.[15] In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo,[16] while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead.[17] In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.[18]
+
+After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law.[19] Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force,[20] especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.
+
+In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries.[21] Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land.[22] But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender[23] or invaded by March 1939.[24] The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked.[25] Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years.[26] In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.[27]
+
+World War II began on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain, France, and the members of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany. They could not help Poland much and only sent a small French attack on Germany from the West.[28] The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland soon after Germany, on September 17.[29] Finally, Poland was divided.
+
+Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries.[30] Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939.[31] With peace, the world war broke out.[32] France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.[33]
+
+After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. While British soldiers were sent to the Continent, there were no big battles fought between two sides.[34] Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France.[35] Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill as Prime Minister of United Kingdom in May 1940 because the British were unhappy with his work.[36]
+
+On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics.[37] The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy,[38] and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
+
+By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them,[39] followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.[40][41]  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.[42]
+
+Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island,[43] but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.[44]  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.[45]
+
+In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania.[46] Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again.[47] Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May.[48] Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.[49]
+
+At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again.[50] Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941.[51] However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.[52]
+
+On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union.  During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July.[53] Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow.[54] It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.[55]
+
+By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west.[56] The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.[57]
+
+By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before.[58] However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.[59]
+
+In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies.[60] Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan.[61] Japan planned to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific so that it could get more resources.[62] But before any future invasion, it first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.[63] On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries.[64] This event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Western Allies and China to declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union remained neutral.[65] Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.
+
+By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese.[66] In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.
+
+Japan then began its plan to take over Papua New Guinea again,[67] while the United States planned to attack the Solomon Islands. The fight on Guadalcanal  began in September 1942 and involved a lot of troops and ships from both sides. It ended with the Japanese defeat in early 1943.[68]
+
+On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter[69] After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943.[70] Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk.[71]  Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.
+
+In August 1942, because of the Allied defense at El Alamein, the Axis army failed to take the town.  A new Allied offensive, drove the Axis west across Libya a few months later,[72] just after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa forced it to join the Allies.[73] This led to Axis defeat in the North African Campaign May 1943.[74]
+
+In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses.[75][76] Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome.[77] The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.[78][79]
+
+On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily. This resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month.[80] In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies.[81] Germany then took control of Italy and disarmed its army,[82] and built up many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion down.[83] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon created the German-occupied client state, Italian Social Republic.[84]
+
+Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.
+
+In early 1944, the Soviet army drove off the German army from Leningrad,[85] ending the longest and deadliest siege in history. After that, the Soviets began a big counter-attack. By May, the Soviets had retaken Crimea. With the attacks in Italy from September 1943, the Allies succeeded in capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, and made the German forces fall back.[86]
+
+On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .
+
+On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[87] Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets.[88] Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies.[89] Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.
+
+On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.[90]
+
+By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.
+
+Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini's death.[91] In his will, he appointed his navy commander, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, to be the President of Germany.[92]  Dönitz surrendered to the Allies, and opposed Hitler's will to have Germany continue fighting.
+
+German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.[93]
+
+In the Pacific, American forces arrived in the Philippines on June 1944. And by April 1945, American and Philippine forces had cleared much of the Japanese forces, but the fighting continued in some parts of the Philippines until the end of the war.[94] British and Chinese forces advanced in Northern Burma and captured Rangoon by May 3, 1945.[95] American forces then took Iwo Jima by March and Okinawa by June 1945.[96] Many Japanese cities were destroyed by Allied bombings, and Japanese imports were cut off by American submarines.
+
+The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there.[97] On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.[98]
+
+The Allies managed to occupy Austria and Germany. Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union controlled the Eastern part, and the Western Allies controlled the Western part. The Allies began denazification, removing Nazi ideas from public life in Germany,[99] and most high-ranking Nazis were captured and brought to a special court. Germany lost a quarter of the land it had in 1937, with the land given to Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets also took some parts of Poland[100][101][102] and Finland,[103] as well as three Baltic countries.[104][105]
+
+The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945,[106] to keep peace between countries in the world.[107] However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war[108] and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned  into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[109]
+
+In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950.[110] Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949.[111] The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.
+
+After the war, decolonization took place in many European colonies.[112] Bad economies and people wanting to rule themselves were the main reasons for that. In most cases, it happened peacefully, except in some countries, such as Indochina and Algeria.[113] In many regions, European withdrawal caused divisions among the people who had different ethnic groups or religions.[114]
+
+Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy.[115][116] It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) to help European countries. German,[117] Italian,[118][119] and French economies recovered.[120] However, the British economy was badly harmed[121] and continued to worsen for more than ten years.[122] The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over.[123] This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s.[124] China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.[125]
+
+There is no exact total number of deaths, because many were unrecorded. Many studies said that more than 60 million people died in the war, mostly civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people,[126] almost half of the recorded number.[127] This means that 25% of the Soviets were killed or wounded in the war.[128] About 85% of the total deaths were on the Allies side, and the other 15% were on the Axis. Mostly, people died because they were sick, hungry to death, bombed, or killed because of their ethnicity.
+
+The Nazis killed many groups of people they selected, known as The Holocaust. They exterminated Jews, and killed the Roma, Poles, Russians, homosexuals and other groups.[129] Around 11[130] to 17 million[131] civilians died. Around 7.5 million people were killed in China by the Japanese.[132] The most well-known Japanese crime is the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. There were reports that the Germans and Japanese tested biological weapons against civilians[133] and prisoners of war.[134]
+
+Although many of the Axis's crimes were brought to the first international court,[135] crimes caused by the Allies were not.
+
+Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy.[136] German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.
+
+Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%,[137] seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians.[138] More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories.[139] Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.[140]
+
+Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.
+
+The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor.[141] Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[142]
+
+Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis.[143] While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.[143]
+
+The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so.[144][145] Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.[146]
+
+As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind.  At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment.  In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships.  Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.
+
+In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan.[147][148] However, Allied bombings[149][150] and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.[151]
+
+In Britain, women also worked in gathering intelligence, at Bletchley Park and other places.  The mass evacuation of children also had a major impact on the lives of mothers during the war years.
+
+Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income.[152] In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.[153][154]
+
+In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers.[155] Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time.[156] During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end.  By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.[156]
+
+The war brought new methods for future wars.  The air forces improved greatly in fields such as air transport,[157] strategic bombing (to use bombs to destroy industry and morale),[158] as well as radar, and weapons for destroying aircraft. Jet aircraft were developed and would be used in worldwide air forces.[159]
+
+At sea, the war focused on using aircraft carriers and submarines. Aircraft carriers soon replaced battleships.[160][161][162] The important reason was they were cheaper.[163] Submarines, a deadly weapon since World War I,[164] also played an important part in the war. The British improved weapons for destroying submarines, such as sonar, while the Germans improved submarine tactics.[165]
+
+The style of war on the land changed from World War I to be more moveable. Tanks, which were used to support infantry, changed to a primary weapon.[166] The tank was improved in speed, armour and firepower during the war. At the start of the war, most commanders thought that using better tanks was the best way to fight enemy tanks.[167] However, early tanks could harm armour just a little. The German idea to avoid letting tanks fight one another meant tanks facing tanks rarely happened. This was a successful tactic used in Poland and France.[166] Ways to destroy tanks also improved. Even though vehicles became more used in the war, infantry remained the main part of the army,[168] and most equipped like in World War I.[169]
+
+Submachine guns became widely used.  They were especially used in cities and jungles.[169]  The assault rifle, a German development combining features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the main weapon for most armies after the war.[170]
+
+Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma.  Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.
+
+The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore.  Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.
+
+*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
+**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.
+
+Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces.  Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
+
+The Axis Powers
+
+Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
+
+The Allied Powers
+
+U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
+

ensimple/5324.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+
+
+Pacific War
+
+Mediterranean and Middle East
+
+Other campaigns
+
+Contemporaneous wars
+
+World War II (WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries.  Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history.[1] Between 50 to 85 million people died.[2][3] The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
+
+The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937.[4] The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.
+
+The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and in that same year the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad. After that, the Allies started to fight back from all sides. The Axis were forced back in the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy.[5] In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and came into Germany from the west,[6] while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The war ended with the Allied victory.
+
+After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars.  The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.
+
+The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.
+
+The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries.[7][8][9][10] Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.
+
+The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.
+
+World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers.  Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed.  The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well.  The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism.  These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles.[11] The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies.[12]  The size of their army and navy was also limited,[13] while its air force was banned.
+
+In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war, thinking that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire.[14]
+
+After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began.[15] In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo,[16] while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead.[17] In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.[18]
+
+After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law.[19] Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force,[20] especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.
+
+In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries.[21] Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land.[22] But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender[23] or invaded by March 1939.[24] The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked.[25] Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years.[26] In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.[27]
+
+World War II began on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain, France, and the members of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany. They could not help Poland much and only sent a small French attack on Germany from the West.[28] The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland soon after Germany, on September 17.[29] Finally, Poland was divided.
+
+Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries.[30] Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939.[31] With peace, the world war broke out.[32] France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.[33]
+
+After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. While British soldiers were sent to the Continent, there were no big battles fought between two sides.[34] Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France.[35] Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill as Prime Minister of United Kingdom in May 1940 because the British were unhappy with his work.[36]
+
+On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics.[37] The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy,[38] and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
+
+By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them,[39] followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.[40][41]  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.[42]
+
+Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island,[43] but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.[44]  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.[45]
+
+In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania.[46] Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again.[47] Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May.[48] Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.[49]
+
+At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again.[50] Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941.[51] However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.[52]
+
+On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union.  During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July.[53] Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow.[54] It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.[55]
+
+By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west.[56] The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.[57]
+
+By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before.[58] However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.[59]
+
+In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies.[60] Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan.[61] Japan planned to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific so that it could get more resources.[62] But before any future invasion, it first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.[63] On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries.[64] This event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Western Allies and China to declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union remained neutral.[65] Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.
+
+By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese.[66] In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.
+
+Japan then began its plan to take over Papua New Guinea again,[67] while the United States planned to attack the Solomon Islands. The fight on Guadalcanal  began in September 1942 and involved a lot of troops and ships from both sides. It ended with the Japanese defeat in early 1943.[68]
+
+On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter[69] After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943.[70] Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk.[71]  Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.
+
+In August 1942, because of the Allied defense at El Alamein, the Axis army failed to take the town.  A new Allied offensive, drove the Axis west across Libya a few months later,[72] just after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa forced it to join the Allies.[73] This led to Axis defeat in the North African Campaign May 1943.[74]
+
+In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses.[75][76] Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome.[77] The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.[78][79]
+
+On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily. This resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month.[80] In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies.[81] Germany then took control of Italy and disarmed its army,[82] and built up many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion down.[83] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon created the German-occupied client state, Italian Social Republic.[84]
+
+Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.
+
+In early 1944, the Soviet army drove off the German army from Leningrad,[85] ending the longest and deadliest siege in history. After that, the Soviets began a big counter-attack. By May, the Soviets had retaken Crimea. With the attacks in Italy from September 1943, the Allies succeeded in capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, and made the German forces fall back.[86]
+
+On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .
+
+On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[87] Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets.[88] Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies.[89] Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.
+
+On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.[90]
+
+By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.
+
+Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini's death.[91] In his will, he appointed his navy commander, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, to be the President of Germany.[92]  Dönitz surrendered to the Allies, and opposed Hitler's will to have Germany continue fighting.
+
+German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.[93]
+
+In the Pacific, American forces arrived in the Philippines on June 1944. And by April 1945, American and Philippine forces had cleared much of the Japanese forces, but the fighting continued in some parts of the Philippines until the end of the war.[94] British and Chinese forces advanced in Northern Burma and captured Rangoon by May 3, 1945.[95] American forces then took Iwo Jima by March and Okinawa by June 1945.[96] Many Japanese cities were destroyed by Allied bombings, and Japanese imports were cut off by American submarines.
+
+The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there.[97] On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.[98]
+
+The Allies managed to occupy Austria and Germany. Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union controlled the Eastern part, and the Western Allies controlled the Western part. The Allies began denazification, removing Nazi ideas from public life in Germany,[99] and most high-ranking Nazis were captured and brought to a special court. Germany lost a quarter of the land it had in 1937, with the land given to Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets also took some parts of Poland[100][101][102] and Finland,[103] as well as three Baltic countries.[104][105]
+
+The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945,[106] to keep peace between countries in the world.[107] However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war[108] and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned  into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[109]
+
+In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950.[110] Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949.[111] The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.
+
+After the war, decolonization took place in many European colonies.[112] Bad economies and people wanting to rule themselves were the main reasons for that. In most cases, it happened peacefully, except in some countries, such as Indochina and Algeria.[113] In many regions, European withdrawal caused divisions among the people who had different ethnic groups or religions.[114]
+
+Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy.[115][116] It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) to help European countries. German,[117] Italian,[118][119] and French economies recovered.[120] However, the British economy was badly harmed[121] and continued to worsen for more than ten years.[122] The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over.[123] This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s.[124] China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.[125]
+
+There is no exact total number of deaths, because many were unrecorded. Many studies said that more than 60 million people died in the war, mostly civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people,[126] almost half of the recorded number.[127] This means that 25% of the Soviets were killed or wounded in the war.[128] About 85% of the total deaths were on the Allies side, and the other 15% were on the Axis. Mostly, people died because they were sick, hungry to death, bombed, or killed because of their ethnicity.
+
+The Nazis killed many groups of people they selected, known as The Holocaust. They exterminated Jews, and killed the Roma, Poles, Russians, homosexuals and other groups.[129] Around 11[130] to 17 million[131] civilians died. Around 7.5 million people were killed in China by the Japanese.[132] The most well-known Japanese crime is the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. There were reports that the Germans and Japanese tested biological weapons against civilians[133] and prisoners of war.[134]
+
+Although many of the Axis's crimes were brought to the first international court,[135] crimes caused by the Allies were not.
+
+Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy.[136] German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.
+
+Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%,[137] seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians.[138] More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories.[139] Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.[140]
+
+Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.
+
+The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor.[141] Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[142]
+
+Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis.[143] While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.[143]
+
+The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so.[144][145] Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.[146]
+
+As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind.  At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment.  In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships.  Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.
+
+In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan.[147][148] However, Allied bombings[149][150] and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.[151]
+
+In Britain, women also worked in gathering intelligence, at Bletchley Park and other places.  The mass evacuation of children also had a major impact on the lives of mothers during the war years.
+
+Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income.[152] In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.[153][154]
+
+In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers.[155] Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time.[156] During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end.  By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.[156]
+
+The war brought new methods for future wars.  The air forces improved greatly in fields such as air transport,[157] strategic bombing (to use bombs to destroy industry and morale),[158] as well as radar, and weapons for destroying aircraft. Jet aircraft were developed and would be used in worldwide air forces.[159]
+
+At sea, the war focused on using aircraft carriers and submarines. Aircraft carriers soon replaced battleships.[160][161][162] The important reason was they were cheaper.[163] Submarines, a deadly weapon since World War I,[164] also played an important part in the war. The British improved weapons for destroying submarines, such as sonar, while the Germans improved submarine tactics.[165]
+
+The style of war on the land changed from World War I to be more moveable. Tanks, which were used to support infantry, changed to a primary weapon.[166] The tank was improved in speed, armour and firepower during the war. At the start of the war, most commanders thought that using better tanks was the best way to fight enemy tanks.[167] However, early tanks could harm armour just a little. The German idea to avoid letting tanks fight one another meant tanks facing tanks rarely happened. This was a successful tactic used in Poland and France.[166] Ways to destroy tanks also improved. Even though vehicles became more used in the war, infantry remained the main part of the army,[168] and most equipped like in World War I.[169]
+
+Submachine guns became widely used.  They were especially used in cities and jungles.[169]  The assault rifle, a German development combining features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the main weapon for most armies after the war.[170]
+
+Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma.  Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.
+
+The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore.  Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.
+
+*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
+**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.
+
+Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces.  Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
+
+The Axis Powers
+
+Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
+
+The Allied Powers
+
+U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
+

ensimple/5325.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+
+
+Pacific War
+
+Mediterranean and Middle East
+
+Other campaigns
+
+Contemporaneous wars
+
+World War II (WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries.  Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history.[1] Between 50 to 85 million people died.[2][3] The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
+
+The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937.[4] The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.
+
+The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and in that same year the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad. After that, the Allies started to fight back from all sides. The Axis were forced back in the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy.[5] In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and came into Germany from the west,[6] while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The war ended with the Allied victory.
+
+After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars.  The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.
+
+The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.
+
+The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries.[7][8][9][10] Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.
+
+The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.
+
+World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers.  Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed.  The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well.  The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism.  These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles.[11] The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies.[12]  The size of their army and navy was also limited,[13] while its air force was banned.
+
+In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war, thinking that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire.[14]
+
+After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began.[15] In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo,[16] while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead.[17] In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.[18]
+
+After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law.[19] Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force,[20] especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.
+
+In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries.[21] Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land.[22] But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender[23] or invaded by March 1939.[24] The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked.[25] Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years.[26] In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.[27]
+
+World War II began on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain, France, and the members of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany. They could not help Poland much and only sent a small French attack on Germany from the West.[28] The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland soon after Germany, on September 17.[29] Finally, Poland was divided.
+
+Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries.[30] Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939.[31] With peace, the world war broke out.[32] France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.[33]
+
+After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. While British soldiers were sent to the Continent, there were no big battles fought between two sides.[34] Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France.[35] Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill as Prime Minister of United Kingdom in May 1940 because the British were unhappy with his work.[36]
+
+On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics.[37] The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy,[38] and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
+
+By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them,[39] followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.[40][41]  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.[42]
+
+Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island,[43] but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.[44]  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.[45]
+
+In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania.[46] Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again.[47] Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May.[48] Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.[49]
+
+At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again.[50] Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941.[51] However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.[52]
+
+On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union.  During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July.[53] Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow.[54] It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.[55]
+
+By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west.[56] The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.[57]
+
+By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before.[58] However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.[59]
+
+In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies.[60] Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan.[61] Japan planned to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific so that it could get more resources.[62] But before any future invasion, it first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.[63] On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries.[64] This event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Western Allies and China to declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union remained neutral.[65] Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.
+
+By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese.[66] In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.
+
+Japan then began its plan to take over Papua New Guinea again,[67] while the United States planned to attack the Solomon Islands. The fight on Guadalcanal  began in September 1942 and involved a lot of troops and ships from both sides. It ended with the Japanese defeat in early 1943.[68]
+
+On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter[69] After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943.[70] Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk.[71]  Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.
+
+In August 1942, because of the Allied defense at El Alamein, the Axis army failed to take the town.  A new Allied offensive, drove the Axis west across Libya a few months later,[72] just after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa forced it to join the Allies.[73] This led to Axis defeat in the North African Campaign May 1943.[74]
+
+In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses.[75][76] Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome.[77] The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.[78][79]
+
+On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily. This resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month.[80] In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies.[81] Germany then took control of Italy and disarmed its army,[82] and built up many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion down.[83] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon created the German-occupied client state, Italian Social Republic.[84]
+
+Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.
+
+In early 1944, the Soviet army drove off the German army from Leningrad,[85] ending the longest and deadliest siege in history. After that, the Soviets began a big counter-attack. By May, the Soviets had retaken Crimea. With the attacks in Italy from September 1943, the Allies succeeded in capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, and made the German forces fall back.[86]
+
+On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .
+
+On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[87] Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets.[88] Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies.[89] Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.
+
+On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.[90]
+
+By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.
+
+Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini's death.[91] In his will, he appointed his navy commander, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, to be the President of Germany.[92]  Dönitz surrendered to the Allies, and opposed Hitler's will to have Germany continue fighting.
+
+German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.[93]
+
+In the Pacific, American forces arrived in the Philippines on June 1944. And by April 1945, American and Philippine forces had cleared much of the Japanese forces, but the fighting continued in some parts of the Philippines until the end of the war.[94] British and Chinese forces advanced in Northern Burma and captured Rangoon by May 3, 1945.[95] American forces then took Iwo Jima by March and Okinawa by June 1945.[96] Many Japanese cities were destroyed by Allied bombings, and Japanese imports were cut off by American submarines.
+
+The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there.[97] On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.[98]
+
+The Allies managed to occupy Austria and Germany. Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union controlled the Eastern part, and the Western Allies controlled the Western part. The Allies began denazification, removing Nazi ideas from public life in Germany,[99] and most high-ranking Nazis were captured and brought to a special court. Germany lost a quarter of the land it had in 1937, with the land given to Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets also took some parts of Poland[100][101][102] and Finland,[103] as well as three Baltic countries.[104][105]
+
+The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945,[106] to keep peace between countries in the world.[107] However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war[108] and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned  into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[109]
+
+In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950.[110] Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949.[111] The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.
+
+After the war, decolonization took place in many European colonies.[112] Bad economies and people wanting to rule themselves were the main reasons for that. In most cases, it happened peacefully, except in some countries, such as Indochina and Algeria.[113] In many regions, European withdrawal caused divisions among the people who had different ethnic groups or religions.[114]
+
+Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy.[115][116] It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) to help European countries. German,[117] Italian,[118][119] and French economies recovered.[120] However, the British economy was badly harmed[121] and continued to worsen for more than ten years.[122] The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over.[123] This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s.[124] China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.[125]
+
+There is no exact total number of deaths, because many were unrecorded. Many studies said that more than 60 million people died in the war, mostly civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people,[126] almost half of the recorded number.[127] This means that 25% of the Soviets were killed or wounded in the war.[128] About 85% of the total deaths were on the Allies side, and the other 15% were on the Axis. Mostly, people died because they were sick, hungry to death, bombed, or killed because of their ethnicity.
+
+The Nazis killed many groups of people they selected, known as The Holocaust. They exterminated Jews, and killed the Roma, Poles, Russians, homosexuals and other groups.[129] Around 11[130] to 17 million[131] civilians died. Around 7.5 million people were killed in China by the Japanese.[132] The most well-known Japanese crime is the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. There were reports that the Germans and Japanese tested biological weapons against civilians[133] and prisoners of war.[134]
+
+Although many of the Axis's crimes were brought to the first international court,[135] crimes caused by the Allies were not.
+
+Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy.[136] German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.
+
+Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%,[137] seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians.[138] More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories.[139] Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.[140]
+
+Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.
+
+The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor.[141] Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[142]
+
+Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis.[143] While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.[143]
+
+The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so.[144][145] Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.[146]
+
+As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind.  At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment.  In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships.  Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.
+
+In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan.[147][148] However, Allied bombings[149][150] and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.[151]
+
+In Britain, women also worked in gathering intelligence, at Bletchley Park and other places.  The mass evacuation of children also had a major impact on the lives of mothers during the war years.
+
+Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income.[152] In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.[153][154]
+
+In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers.[155] Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time.[156] During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end.  By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.[156]
+
+The war brought new methods for future wars.  The air forces improved greatly in fields such as air transport,[157] strategic bombing (to use bombs to destroy industry and morale),[158] as well as radar, and weapons for destroying aircraft. Jet aircraft were developed and would be used in worldwide air forces.[159]
+
+At sea, the war focused on using aircraft carriers and submarines. Aircraft carriers soon replaced battleships.[160][161][162] The important reason was they were cheaper.[163] Submarines, a deadly weapon since World War I,[164] also played an important part in the war. The British improved weapons for destroying submarines, such as sonar, while the Germans improved submarine tactics.[165]
+
+The style of war on the land changed from World War I to be more moveable. Tanks, which were used to support infantry, changed to a primary weapon.[166] The tank was improved in speed, armour and firepower during the war. At the start of the war, most commanders thought that using better tanks was the best way to fight enemy tanks.[167] However, early tanks could harm armour just a little. The German idea to avoid letting tanks fight one another meant tanks facing tanks rarely happened. This was a successful tactic used in Poland and France.[166] Ways to destroy tanks also improved. Even though vehicles became more used in the war, infantry remained the main part of the army,[168] and most equipped like in World War I.[169]
+
+Submachine guns became widely used.  They were especially used in cities and jungles.[169]  The assault rifle, a German development combining features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the main weapon for most armies after the war.[170]
+
+Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma.  Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.
+
+The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore.  Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.
+
+*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
+**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.
+
+Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces.  Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
+
+The Axis Powers
+
+Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
+
+The Allied Powers
+
+U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
+

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+
+
+Pacific War
+
+Mediterranean and Middle East
+
+Other campaigns
+
+Contemporaneous wars
+
+World War II (WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries.  Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history.[1] Between 50 to 85 million people died.[2][3] The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
+
+The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937.[4] The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.
+
+The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and in that same year the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad. After that, the Allies started to fight back from all sides. The Axis were forced back in the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy.[5] In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and came into Germany from the west,[6] while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The war ended with the Allied victory.
+
+After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars.  The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.
+
+The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.
+
+The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries.[7][8][9][10] Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.
+
+The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.
+
+World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers.  Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed.  The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well.  The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism.  These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles.[11] The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies.[12]  The size of their army and navy was also limited,[13] while its air force was banned.
+
+In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war, thinking that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire.[14]
+
+After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began.[15] In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo,[16] while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead.[17] In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.[18]
+
+After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law.[19] Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force,[20] especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.
+
+In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries.[21] Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land.[22] But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender[23] or invaded by March 1939.[24] The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked.[25] Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years.[26] In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.[27]
+
+World War II began on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain, France, and the members of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany. They could not help Poland much and only sent a small French attack on Germany from the West.[28] The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland soon after Germany, on September 17.[29] Finally, Poland was divided.
+
+Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries.[30] Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939.[31] With peace, the world war broke out.[32] France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.[33]
+
+After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. While British soldiers were sent to the Continent, there were no big battles fought between two sides.[34] Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France.[35] Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill as Prime Minister of United Kingdom in May 1940 because the British were unhappy with his work.[36]
+
+On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics.[37] The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy,[38] and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
+
+By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them,[39] followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.[40][41]  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.[42]
+
+Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island,[43] but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.[44]  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.[45]
+
+In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania.[46] Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again.[47] Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May.[48] Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.[49]
+
+At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again.[50] Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941.[51] However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.[52]
+
+On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union.  During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July.[53] Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow.[54] It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.[55]
+
+By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west.[56] The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.[57]
+
+By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before.[58] However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.[59]
+
+In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies.[60] Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan.[61] Japan planned to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific so that it could get more resources.[62] But before any future invasion, it first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.[63] On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries.[64] This event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Western Allies and China to declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union remained neutral.[65] Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.
+
+By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese.[66] In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.
+
+Japan then began its plan to take over Papua New Guinea again,[67] while the United States planned to attack the Solomon Islands. The fight on Guadalcanal  began in September 1942 and involved a lot of troops and ships from both sides. It ended with the Japanese defeat in early 1943.[68]
+
+On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter[69] After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943.[70] Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk.[71]  Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.
+
+In August 1942, because of the Allied defense at El Alamein, the Axis army failed to take the town.  A new Allied offensive, drove the Axis west across Libya a few months later,[72] just after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa forced it to join the Allies.[73] This led to Axis defeat in the North African Campaign May 1943.[74]
+
+In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses.[75][76] Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome.[77] The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.[78][79]
+
+On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily. This resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month.[80] In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies.[81] Germany then took control of Italy and disarmed its army,[82] and built up many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion down.[83] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon created the German-occupied client state, Italian Social Republic.[84]
+
+Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.
+
+In early 1944, the Soviet army drove off the German army from Leningrad,[85] ending the longest and deadliest siege in history. After that, the Soviets began a big counter-attack. By May, the Soviets had retaken Crimea. With the attacks in Italy from September 1943, the Allies succeeded in capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, and made the German forces fall back.[86]
+
+On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .
+
+On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre.[87] Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets.[88] Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies.[89] Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.
+
+On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.[90]
+
+By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.
+
+Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, two days after Mussolini's death.[91] In his will, he appointed his navy commander, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, to be the President of Germany.[92]  Dönitz surrendered to the Allies, and opposed Hitler's will to have Germany continue fighting.
+
+German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.[93]
+
+In the Pacific, American forces arrived in the Philippines on June 1944. And by April 1945, American and Philippine forces had cleared much of the Japanese forces, but the fighting continued in some parts of the Philippines until the end of the war.[94] British and Chinese forces advanced in Northern Burma and captured Rangoon by May 3, 1945.[95] American forces then took Iwo Jima by March and Okinawa by June 1945.[96] Many Japanese cities were destroyed by Allied bombings, and Japanese imports were cut off by American submarines.
+
+The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there.[97] On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.[98]
+
+The Allies managed to occupy Austria and Germany. Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union controlled the Eastern part, and the Western Allies controlled the Western part. The Allies began denazification, removing Nazi ideas from public life in Germany,[99] and most high-ranking Nazis were captured and brought to a special court. Germany lost a quarter of the land it had in 1937, with the land given to Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets also took some parts of Poland[100][101][102] and Finland,[103] as well as three Baltic countries.[104][105]
+
+The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945,[106] to keep peace between countries in the world.[107] However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war[108] and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned  into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[109]
+
+In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950.[110] Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949.[111] The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.
+
+After the war, decolonization took place in many European colonies.[112] Bad economies and people wanting to rule themselves were the main reasons for that. In most cases, it happened peacefully, except in some countries, such as Indochina and Algeria.[113] In many regions, European withdrawal caused divisions among the people who had different ethnic groups or religions.[114]
+
+Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy.[115][116] It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) to help European countries. German,[117] Italian,[118][119] and French economies recovered.[120] However, the British economy was badly harmed[121] and continued to worsen for more than ten years.[122] The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over.[123] This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s.[124] China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.[125]
+
+There is no exact total number of deaths, because many were unrecorded. Many studies said that more than 60 million people died in the war, mostly civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people,[126] almost half of the recorded number.[127] This means that 25% of the Soviets were killed or wounded in the war.[128] About 85% of the total deaths were on the Allies side, and the other 15% were on the Axis. Mostly, people died because they were sick, hungry to death, bombed, or killed because of their ethnicity.
+
+The Nazis killed many groups of people they selected, known as The Holocaust. They exterminated Jews, and killed the Roma, Poles, Russians, homosexuals and other groups.[129] Around 11[130] to 17 million[131] civilians died. Around 7.5 million people were killed in China by the Japanese.[132] The most well-known Japanese crime is the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. There were reports that the Germans and Japanese tested biological weapons against civilians[133] and prisoners of war.[134]
+
+Although many of the Axis's crimes were brought to the first international court,[135] crimes caused by the Allies were not.
+
+Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy.[136] German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.
+
+Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%,[137] seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians.[138] More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories.[139] Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.[140]
+
+Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.
+
+The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor.[141] Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[142]
+
+Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis.[143] While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.[143]
+
+The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so.[144][145] Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.[146]
+
+As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind.  At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment.  In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships.  Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.
+
+In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan.[147][148] However, Allied bombings[149][150] and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.[151]
+
+In Britain, women also worked in gathering intelligence, at Bletchley Park and other places.  The mass evacuation of children also had a major impact on the lives of mothers during the war years.
+
+Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income.[152] In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.[153][154]
+
+In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers.[155] Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time.[156] During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end.  By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.[156]
+
+The war brought new methods for future wars.  The air forces improved greatly in fields such as air transport,[157] strategic bombing (to use bombs to destroy industry and morale),[158] as well as radar, and weapons for destroying aircraft. Jet aircraft were developed and would be used in worldwide air forces.[159]
+
+At sea, the war focused on using aircraft carriers and submarines. Aircraft carriers soon replaced battleships.[160][161][162] The important reason was they were cheaper.[163] Submarines, a deadly weapon since World War I,[164] also played an important part in the war. The British improved weapons for destroying submarines, such as sonar, while the Germans improved submarine tactics.[165]
+
+The style of war on the land changed from World War I to be more moveable. Tanks, which were used to support infantry, changed to a primary weapon.[166] The tank was improved in speed, armour and firepower during the war. At the start of the war, most commanders thought that using better tanks was the best way to fight enemy tanks.[167] However, early tanks could harm armour just a little. The German idea to avoid letting tanks fight one another meant tanks facing tanks rarely happened. This was a successful tactic used in Poland and France.[166] Ways to destroy tanks also improved. Even though vehicles became more used in the war, infantry remained the main part of the army,[168] and most equipped like in World War I.[169]
+
+Submachine guns became widely used.  They were especially used in cities and jungles.[169]  The assault rifle, a German development combining features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the main weapon for most armies after the war.[170]
+
+Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma.  Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.
+
+The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore.  Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.
+
+*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
+**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.
+
+Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces.  Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
+
+The Axis Powers
+
+Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
+
+The Allied Powers
+
+U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
+

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+The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts fought between Rome and Carthage between 264 and 146 BC.[1] They were probably the largest wars in the ancient world.[2] The term "Punic" comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus). This was the word the Romans used for the Carthaginians, due to their Phoenician ancestry.
+
+The main cause of the Punic Wars was the clash of interests between the existing empire of Carthage and the expanding Roman Republic. What was at stake was control of the trading around the Mediterranean sea. Carthage lost the three wars.
+
+Carthage was a trading nation founded by Phoenicians. It was the dominant sea power in the western Mediterranean. It was a maritime empire, in contrast to the land-based Roman empire. The Romans decided they needed Sicily, which was then in Carthaginian hands. The consequence was a series of wars which lasted over a hundred years, and ended in the utter destruction of Carthage.
+

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+The second (symbol: s), sometimes abbreviated sec., is the name of a unit of time. It is one of the seven SI base units. That means that the second is used to build the foundations of many other units (e.g. speed is a meter per second, in SI units). One second is officially measured as the time taken by 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation that comes from electrons moving between two energy levels of the caesium-133 atom.
+
+The second is not the only unit of time. Other units of time include minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. There are 60 seconds in one minute, 60 minutes (or 3,600 seconds) in one hour, and 24 hours (86,400 seconds) in one day. With the only exception of the second, all other units of time are not considered SI units.
+
+Metric prefixes are frequently combined with the word second to denote subdivisions of the second, e.g., the millisecond (one thousandth of a second) and nanosecond (one billionth of a second). Though SI prefixes may also be used to form multiples of the second (such as “kilosecond”, or one thousand seconds), such units are rarely used in practice. More commonly encountered, non-SI units of time such as the minute, hour, and day increase by multiples of 60 and 24 (rather than by powers of ten as in the SI system).
+
+Under the International System of Units, the second is currently defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.[1] This definition refers to a caesium atom at rest at a temperature of 0 kelvins (−273.15 degrees Celsius; −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) (absolute zero). The ground state is defined at zero magnetic field.[1] The second thus defined is equivalent to the ephemeris second.
+
+The international standard symbol for a second is s (see ISO 31-1)
+
+1 international second is equal to:
+
+There are 31,536,000 seconds in a common year, 31,622,400 seconds in a leap year, and 31,557,600 seconds in a Julian year
+
+Originally, the second was known as a "second minute", meaning the second minute (i.e. small) division of an hour. The first division was known as a "prime minute" and is equivalent to the minute we know today. Third and fourth minutes were sometimes used in calculations.
+
+The factor of 60 comes from the Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (base-60) numeral system. However, the Babylonians did not subdivide their time units sexagesimally (except for the day). The hour had been defined by the ancient Egyptians as either 1/12 of daytime or 1/12 of nighttime, hence both varied with the seasons. Greek astronomers, for example Hipparchus and Ptolemy, defined the hour as 1/24 of a mean solar day. Sexagesimally subdividing this mean solar hour made the second 1/86,400 of a mean solar day.[source?]
+
+Greek time periods, for example the mean synodic month, were usually specified quite precisely because they were calculated from carefully selected eclipses separated by hundreds of years—individual mean synodic months and similar time periods cannot be measured. Nevertheless, with the development of pendulum clocks keeping mean time (as opposed to the apparent time displayed by sundials), the second became measurable. The seconds pendulum was proposed as a unit of length as early as 1660 by the Royal Society of London. The duration of a beat or half period (one swing, not back and forth) of a pendulum one metre in length on the Earth's surface is approximately one second.[2]
+
+In 1956 the second was defined in terms of the period of revolution of the Earth around the Sun for a particular epoch, because by then it had become recognized that the Earth's rotation on its own axis was not sufficiently uniform as a standard of time. The Earth's motion was described in Newcomb's Tables of the Sun, which provides a formula for the motion of the Sun at the epoch 1900 based on astronomical observations made between 1750 and 1892.[1] The second thus defined is
+
+This definition was ratified by the Eleventh General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1960. The tropical year in the definition was not measured, but calculated from a formula describing a tropical year which decreased linearly over time, hence the curious reference to a specific instantaneous tropical year. Because this second was the independent variable of time used in ephemerides of the Sun and Moon during most of the twentieth century (Newcomb's Tables of the Sun were used from 1900 through 1983, and Brown's Tables of the Moon were used from 1920 through 1983), it was called the ephemeris second.[1]
+
+When atomic clocks were made, they became the basis of the definition of the second, rather than the revolution of the Earth around the Sun.
+
+Following several years of work, Louis Essen from the National Physical Laboratory (Teddington, England) and William Markowitz from the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) determined the relationship between the hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium atom and the ephemeris second.[1] Using a common-view measurement method based on the received signals from radio station WWV,[3] they determined the orbital motion of the Moon about the Earth, from which the apparent motion of the Sun could be inferred, in terms of time as measured by an atomic clock. As a result, in 1967 the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures defined the second of atomic time in the International System of Units (SI) as
+
+The ground state is defined at zero magnetic field. The second thus defined is equivalent to the ephemeris second.[1]
+
+The definition of the second was later refined at the 1997 meeting of the BIPM to include the statement
+
+The revised definition would seem to imply that the ideal atomic clock would contain a single caesium atom at rest emitting a single frequency. In practice, however, the definition means that high-precision realizations of the second should compensate for the effects of the ambient temperature (black-body radiation) within which atomic clocks operate and extrapolate accordingly to the value of the second as defined above.
+
+Sometimes in role-playing games a second is used to refer to a small period of time or a single turn of combat. It is used as a standard moment of time, and does not necessarily refer to a real second, and could be shorter or longer depending on the scenario.

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+In economics, different kinds of manufacturing and services are broken down into groups called industries.[1] The word comes from a Latin word meaning "working diligently at a task". There are many different industries, like mining, farming and logging. The industrial revolution made new industries.
+
+An industy produces goods or services which are of a common set of qualities and which are indistinguishable (called homogeneous, in economics). It uses standardised processes for production, mass production and divison of labor.
+
+Slavery, which is forcing people to make goods[2][not in the source given] and services, has happened since ancient times throughout the world as a way to have low-cost production. It usually produces goods for which profit depends on economies of scale.[3] International law has declared slavery illegal.[4]
+
+The industrial revolution (from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century) saw the development and popularization of using machines to make goods instead of using hands.[5] The industrial revolution played a role in the abolition of slavery in Europe and in North America.[6]

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+Ball could mean:

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+In geometry, a line segment is a line between two different end points. An example of a line segment is a side of a triangle. If the end points are on a curve, like a circle, then the line segment is called a chord.

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+In geometry, a line segment is a line between two different end points. An example of a line segment is a side of a triangle. If the end points are on a curve, like a circle, then the line segment is called a chord.

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+The Lord of the Rings is a book written by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was first published in 1954. It is split in three parts (or volumes), which are named The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.
+
+The Lord of the Rings takes place in Tolkien's fictional world, called Middle-earth. Middle-earth has its own geography, several different races and peoples (elves, dwarves, humans, hobbits, ents), their languages, and a history that is thousands of years old.
+
+The plot of The Lord of the Rings is about the war of the peoples of Middle-earth against a dark lord (who is the 'Lord of the Rings' of the title). At the same time they try to destroy a ring which would give the dark lord a lot of power if he got it, but the only place to destroy the ring is deep into the territory of the enemy.
+
+The Lord of the Rings has also been made into  films, the most well-known is the film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.
+
+The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book, The Hobbit, but quickly became a much larger story. He also moved its (and The Hobbit's) story into his fictional world Middle-earth, which he had already invented long before he wrote The Hobbit. 
+Tolkien wrote the story between 1937 and 1949. It was originally published in three parts in the years 1954 and 1955. Since then, The Lord of the Rings has been translated into 38 languages. It is one of the most popular stories in 20th-century literature and has been an important book for the fantasy genre.
+
+The Lord of the Rings is often called a trilogy, because the publisher split the book into three parts because of the book's size. Tolkien himself had sub-divided The Lord of the Rings into six parts, called Book I-VI, according to the plot. Tolkien never liked it being published in three parts or called a trilogy.
+
+The backstory of The Lord of the Rings begins thousands of years before the action in the book.
+
+In the Second Age, the Dark Lord Sauron wanted to rule Middle-earth. He disguised himself as Annatar, the "Lord of Gifts", and pretended to be good. As Annatar he told the elves how to make magical rings which give power to their wearers.
+Sauron and the elves together made sixteen rings. The Elves also made three rings by themselves, called Vilya, Nenya and Narya. These nineteen rings were the Rings of Power. But Sauron secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring. In this Ring Sauron put half of his power. He planned to control the wearers of the other rings with this One Ring. But the Elves finally realized that Annatar really was the evil Sauron and hid the Rings of Power.
+
+Sauron then started a war. During this war he took back the sixteen rings which he had made together with the Elves. Seven of these rings he gave to the kings of the dwarves, and nine rings he gave to human kings. These human kings became the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, ghostly servants of Sauron.
+
+Led by Gil-galad and Elendil, the Elves and the Men of Gondor and Arnor formed the Last Alliance of Men and Elves to fight Sauron. There was a long war and siege of Sauron's fortress Barad-dûr. In the last battle, Gil-galad and Elendil were killed by Sauron. After his father's death, Elendil' son Isildur cut off the One Ring from Sauron's hand. Sauron was defeated and the war ended.
+
+Because half of Sauron's power was in the One Ring, Sauron did not die fully. His spirit still existed as long as the Ring existed. The elves told Isildur to destroy the One Ring, but Isildur did not want to and kept it.
+
+The One Ring was lost when Isildur was attacked by Orcs. Isildur tried to escape, but he was killed when he lost the Ring. In the Third Age, the Ring was found by the Stoor hobbit Déagol, who was killed by his friend Sméagol over the Ring. Sméagol went to live under the Misty Mountains, where he kept the Ring for five hundred years, and he became known by the name Gollum.
+
+In The Hobbit the Ring is found by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. He thinks it is an unimportant 'magic ring' that simply makes its wearer invisible. Bilbo keeps it, and brings it back with him to the Shire at the end of his journey. There the One Ring stayed until the beginning of the story of The Lord of the Rings.
+
+The book begins in the Third Age of Middle-earth, in the Shire, the land of the hobbits. Sixty years after his adventures in the book The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is living in the Shire with his adopted cousin Frodo Baggins. But Bilbo wants to make another long journey. After a birthday party for his 111th birthday, and Frodo's 33rd birthday, Bilbo leaves the Shire. His home, Bag End, and the One Ring now belong to Frodo. For another eighteen years nothing happens in Frodo's life.
+
+In April of the year 3018, the wizard Gandalf the Grey, who is a friend of Bilbo and Frodo, comes to Bag End. He tells Frodo that his 'magic ring' is really the One Ring of Sauron, and tells him its backstory. Sauron is returning and getting more powerful, because he could not die while the Ring still existed. Sauron is now also searching for the Ring. Gandalf tells Frodo that he has to leave the Shire and take the One Ring to Rivendell, an Elven city. Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's gardener and servant, will go with Frodo. Gandalf promises to meet the two hobbits halfway in the town Bree. Then Gandalf leaves.
+
+Frodo and Sam prepare to leave the Shire in September 3018. On their way to leave the Shire they are already followed by Sauron's Ringwraiths. Frodo's cousins, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took also come with them. The four hobbits journey eastwards through the Old Forest, and over the Barrow-downs. They come to Bree, but Gandalf is not there. They meet a man named Strider, and they get a letter from Gandalf. In the letter they are told to go with Strider, who is really named Aragorn.
+
+The hobbits continue their journey to Rivendell with Aragorn. On the mountain Weathertop they are attacked by the Ringwraiths, and Frodo is badly wounded by their leader, the Witch-king. Aragorn can defend them, and helps Frodo to stay alive. Along the way they meet the elf Glorfindel. Shortly before Rivendell they are attacked again. Frodo can flee on Glorfindel's horse, followed by the Ringwraiths. Frodo crosses the river Bruinen, beyond which is Rivendell, but the Ringwraiths still follow him. Suddenly the river floods, which carries the Ringwraiths away. Frodo falls unconscious because of the stab wound.
+
+Frodo wakes up in Rivendell. He has been healed by the elven lord Elrond, and Frodo's friends are also well. Gandalf is in Rivendell, as are messengers from other peoples. Frodo also meets Bilbo again, who has lived in Rivendell for the past years.
+
+The next day the Council of Elrond is held. The messengers of the different peoples all tell the stories why they have come, which are connected to Sauron's doings. Elrond tells them of Sauron and the One Ring. Many other things are told and revealed. Aragorn is the descendant of Isildur. The wizard Saruman has betrayed the free peoples and turned to evil. Also, the One Ring cannot be used by anyone except Sauron. The One Ring turns normal people invisible, but it also corrupts them, makes its wearer power-hungry, and the ring only does evil. 
+The Council decides that the One Ring has to be destroyed, which will also truly kill Sauron forever. But the One Ring can only be destroyed if it is thrown into the volcano Mount Doom in Sauron's land Mordor, where the One Ring was made. 
+The Council sends Frodo, the Ring-bearer, to destroy the Ring, and eight companions to help him. These nine people are the Fellowship of the Ring: the four hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, the two men Aragorn and Boromir, and Gandalf the Grey.
+
+At the beginning of the year 3019 the Fellowship begins their long journey. Before they go, Bilbo gives his sword Sting and his Mithril-armour to Frodo. With Gandalf as their leader, the Fellowship first goes southwards through the land Hollin. They try to go east over the Misty Mountains through the Redhorn Pass, but there is too much snow. The Fellowship decides to go under the mountains, through the old Dwarven mines, which are called Khazad-dûm or Moria. They almost manage to go through Moria without anything happening, but near the end they are attacked by Orcs. There is also a Balrog, a demonic evil creature from the First Age. Gandalf protects the Fellowship, but he and the Balrog fall into an abyss. Aragorn leads the rest of the Fellowship out of Moria.
+
+Now east of the Misty Mountains, the remaining Fellowship comes to the forest Lothlórien, the land of the Galadhrim, a wood-elven people. The Fellowship is welcomed by Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn, the rulers of Lothlórien. The Fellowship stay for a while. 
+When the Fellowship leaves Lóthlórien, the elves give them boats with which they can travel down the river Anduin. Each member of the Fellowship also gets a present from Lady Galadriel.
+
+The Fellowship travel down the river Anduin until they reach the Emyn Muil and the waterfall Rauros. There they stop to decide where to go now: south to Boromir's home city Minas Tirith, or east to Mordor. Frodo goes for a walk to help him decide. He meets Boromir, who says that the Fellowship should go to Minas Tirith. Boromir also begins to talk about using the Ring against Sauron. Frodo realizes that Boromir is influenced by the One Ring. Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, but Frodo puts the Ring on, becomes invisible and escapes. Boromir becomes himself again and is very sorry for what he tried to do. 
+Frodo decides that he will go alone to Mordor, so that the Ring cannot influence or hurt anyone else. The rest of the Fellowship are worrying where Frodo is. When Boromir comes and tells them that Frodo has run away, all of the Fellowship go and search for him. 
+Sam thinks about the situation, and realizes that Frodo wants to go to Mordor alone. Sam runs back to the boats, and catches Frodo leaving. In the end Frodo and Sam go east to Mordor together, to destroy the One Ring, and hoping that their friends in the Fellowship will be well.
+
+The book begins with Aragorn, who finds a dying Boromir. Boromir tells him that they were attacked by Orcs, who took Merry and Pippin with them. Boromir says he is sorry for everything and dies. Legolas and Gimli arrive. As a funeral, the three put Boromir's body in one of their boats, which they let fall down the waterfall Rauros. They find out that Frodo and Sam left them to go to Mordor, and that the Orcs that attacked them were Saruman's Orcs, who have taken Merry and Pippin. They decide to follow the Orcs westwards to save Merry and Pippin. West of the Emyn Muil they come into the land Rohan, home of the Rohirrim, the Horse-lords. They meet a group of Rohirrim led by Éomer, nephew of King Théoden of Rohan. Éomer and his men have killed the Orc group on the border of the forest Fangorn, but did not see Merry or Pippin. Éomer gives them two horses, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ride to the Fangorn forest.
+
+Merry and Pippin were caught and taken away by a group of Saruman's Orcs, the Uruk-hai. When the Orcs are surrounded and killed by the Rohirrim group, the two hobbits escape into the Fangorn Forest. There they meet Treebeard, an Ent. Ents are giant tree-like creatures. Treebeard takes the hobbits with him, and they tell him what happens in the world outside Fangorn. The Ents have a meeting called the Entmoot. During the Entmoot, the Ents decide to fight Saruman. Treebeard, the other Ents, and the two hobbits go to Isengard, Saruman's home.
+
+In Fangorn, Aragon, Legolas and Gimli meet Gandalf. He had died, but was sent back to Middle-earth as Gandalf the White, to further help the fight against Sauron. Gandalf tells them that Merry and Pippin are well. They then go to Edoras, the capital of Rohan. Gandalf tells King Théoden that they have to go to war against Saruman. Gríma Wormtongue, a spy and servant of Saruman, is cast out. The people of Edoras, led by Éomer's sister Éowyn, flee to Dunharrow in the White Mountains, while the army of the Rohirrim goes to their fortress at Helm's Deep. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go with the Rohirrim warriors, but Gandalf leaves once more without notice. Saruman sends his army of ten thousand Uruk-hai, Orcs, and Dunland men to Helm's Deep. The next morning Gandalf arrives with another Rohirrim army. They defeat Saruman's army, and win the Battle of the Hornburg.
+
+Gandalf, his friends, and a small group of Rohirrim then go to Isengard, Saruman's home. But when they arrive it has already been destroyed by the Ents. They also meet Merry and Pippin there. They talk to Saruman, who still hides in his indestructible tower Orthanc. Gandalf cast him from the Order of Wizards. They find the palantír, which was thrown from the tower by Gríma. The Palantíri are magical black stones with which one can see far away things, and communicate with other palantíri. The group leaves Isengard and rests. Pippin steals the palantír and looks in, and because of this is discovered by Sauron. The group flees the place before the Nazgûl find them. Gandalf and Pippin go to Minas Tirith, while the Rohirrim and other members of the Fellowship go back to Helm's Deep.
+
+Frodo and Sam are in the Emyn Muil mountains and journey eastwards to Mordor. While they are still in the Emyn Muil, they are attacked by Gollum. But the hobbits can defeat and catch him. Gollum has to promise to show them the way into Mordor. They go through the Dead Marshes and come to the Morannon, the Black Gate of Mordor. They cannot go in, but Gollum says he knows a secret way into Mordor. 
+Frodo, Sam, and Gollum travel south through Ithilien. There they see a battle between a group of Southrons from Harad and a group of Rangers of Gondor. The hobbits are caught by the Gondorian group, which is led by Faramir, who is Boromir's brother. But the next day Faramir lets the hobbits leave, because he also believes that the One Ring has to be destroyed. 
+Gollum leads the hobbits into Cirith Ungol in the Mountains of Shadow, but leaves the hobbits there alone. They are hunted by Shelob, a giant spider living in these tunnels. After almost escaping, Shelob stings Frodo, but is wounded and driven off by Sam. Sam believes Frodo is dead, and takes the Ring to continue the quest and destroy it. Frodo's body is found and taken away by a group of Orcs. Sam follows them. The leaders of the Orc group are talking, and Sam hears them say that Frodo is paralyzed, but still alive.
+
+Gandalf and Pippin arrive in Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. There they meet Denethor II, Steward of Gondor, and father of Boromir and Faramir. Pippin becomes a member of the Guards of the Citadel. Minas Tirith prepares for war.
+
+The Rohirrim and Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Merry are on their way to Helm's Deep. Along the way they meet the Grey Company coming from Rivendell. It is a group of thirty Dúnedain, which are Aragorn's people. With the group are also Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond. Aragorn uses the palantír. Aragorn decides to take to the Paths of the Dead. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the Grey Company go to Edoras, Dunharrow, and through the Paths of the Dead through the White Mountains. There Aragorn calls an army of dead spirits to help him. The Grey Company and the Dead Men of Dunharrow then go east.
+
+The Rohirrim and Merry come to Dunharrow. King Théoden takes the Rohirrim armies and goes to help Gondor in the war. Merry is not allowed to go with them, but he secretly goes with a warrior named Dernhelm.
+
+In Minas Tirith they meet Faramir, who tells them of his meeting with Frodo. The next day Faramir goes off to defend the old city Osgiliath, but the city falls, and so do the outer defenses of Minas Tirith. During the retreat Faramir is badly wounded. Minas Tirith is besieged by the armies of Mordor, led by the Witch-king, the leader of the Nazgûl who (it was said) could not be killed by any man. Denethor goes insane and burns himself, and almost also kills the injured Faramir, but this is prevented by Pippin and Gandalf.
+
+The Rohirrim arrive. The armies of Gondor and Rohan fight the armies of Mordor in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. There, King Théoden is killed. Dernhelm, who was really Éowyn (a woman), kills the Witch-king with Merry's help. Aragorn comes with a fleet of black ships and another army of men from southern Gondor up the river Anduin. Together they win the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
+
+Aragorn heals the wounded and sick Faramir, Éowyn, Merry, and many others, proving that he is the rightful King of Gondor. Legolas and Gimli go into Minas Tirith and meet Merry and Pippin again. There they also tell how they got the black ships with the help of the Army of the Dead. The leaders of the armies of Men decide to attack Mordor, as a distraction so that Frodo can destroy the One Ring. Aragorn and Gandalf lead an army of 7000 men to the Black Gate of Mordor. There they fight the Battle of the Morannon against the overwhelmingly large army of Sauron. During the battle Pippin falls unconscious, but he hears that the Great Eagles have come to help them.
+
+Samwise comes to the Tower of Cirith Ungol, but the different Orc groups in it had a fight and almost all of them are now dead. Sam frees Frodo and gives him back the One Ring. The two hobbits disguise themselves as orcs, escape from the Tower and continue their journey through Mordor. It is a hard journey, and the Ring's influence on Frodo is very strong now. One time the hobbits are forced to walk with an army of orcs, but they can escape without being discovered.
+The hobbits come to Mount Doom, where they are attacked by Gollum, who still wants the One Ring. Frodo goes on alone into Mount Doom, but Sam has pity for Gollum and lets him live. Sam follows Frodo into Mount Doom. Frodo is finally overpowered by the One Ring, says it belongs to him and puts the Ring on, which makes Sauron know that he and the Ring are there. Gollum comes back once more and fights with Frodo. Gollum bites off Frodo's finger with the Ring. Gollum is happy to have his Ring back, but makes a mistake: Gollum and the One Ring fall into the volcano, and the Ring is destroyed. Sauron fully dies and his fortress Barad-dûr is destroyed.
+
+At the Battle of the Morannon, the Orcs and other evil creatures no longer know what to do and are defeated easily, and the Battle is won. Gandalf calls three of the Eagles, who then rescue Frodo and Sam.
+
+They all return to Minas Tirith. Aragorn becomes King of Gondor and Arnor. Elves from Rivendell and Lothlórien come to Minas Tirith. Aragon marries Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Elrond. The Fellowship, the elves, and the Rohirrim go back to Rohan. King Théoden is buried. Éomer officially becomes King of Rohan, and Éowyn and Faramir are married. They go on to Helm's Deep, were the fellowship finally splits. Aragorn goes back to Minas Tirith, and Legolas and Gimli also leave to travel to their homes in the northeast. The elves, hobbits and Gandalf go on. At Isedgard they are told that Saruman has left. Galadriel and the Lothlórien-elves leave the group to go back home east over the mountains. The others come to Rivendell, where the hobbits meet Bilbo again.
+
+The four hobbits and Gandalf leave Rivendell, to travel back to the Shire. Gandalf leaves the hobbits after Bree. The four hobbits come to the Shire, but Saruman with his men has taken over the land. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin lead the other hobbits in the fight against them, and they free themselves and the Shire. After a battle, the four hobbits find Saruman and Gríma at Bag End. Frodo wants to send them away unhurt, but Saruman is killed by Gríma. Gríma is shot by hobbit archers.
+
+Some years later Frodo and Sam go to meet Bilbo, Elrond, and Galadriel, and some other elves. They all go to the Grey Havens, where they meet Gandalf, and also Merry and Pippin. The Ring-bearers Bilbo and Frodo, together with Gandalf and the elves, leave Middle-earth, and go west across the sea to Valinor. The Fourth Age of Middle-earth begins. The three remaining hobbits go back to the Shire, and Sam returns to his wife and child.
+
+The Lord of the Rings has been adapted, or made into a movie, a musical, a radio play, and has been made into an animated and three live-action films. Most known is probably The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) directed by Peter Jackson.

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+The Lord of the Rings is a book written by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was first published in 1954. It is split in three parts (or volumes), which are named The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.
+
+The Lord of the Rings takes place in Tolkien's fictional world, called Middle-earth. Middle-earth has its own geography, several different races and peoples (elves, dwarves, humans, hobbits, ents), their languages, and a history that is thousands of years old.
+
+The plot of The Lord of the Rings is about the war of the peoples of Middle-earth against a dark lord (who is the 'Lord of the Rings' of the title). At the same time they try to destroy a ring which would give the dark lord a lot of power if he got it, but the only place to destroy the ring is deep into the territory of the enemy.
+
+The Lord of the Rings has also been made into  films, the most well-known is the film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.
+
+The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book, The Hobbit, but quickly became a much larger story. He also moved its (and The Hobbit's) story into his fictional world Middle-earth, which he had already invented long before he wrote The Hobbit. 
+Tolkien wrote the story between 1937 and 1949. It was originally published in three parts in the years 1954 and 1955. Since then, The Lord of the Rings has been translated into 38 languages. It is one of the most popular stories in 20th-century literature and has been an important book for the fantasy genre.
+
+The Lord of the Rings is often called a trilogy, because the publisher split the book into three parts because of the book's size. Tolkien himself had sub-divided The Lord of the Rings into six parts, called Book I-VI, according to the plot. Tolkien never liked it being published in three parts or called a trilogy.
+
+The backstory of The Lord of the Rings begins thousands of years before the action in the book.
+
+In the Second Age, the Dark Lord Sauron wanted to rule Middle-earth. He disguised himself as Annatar, the "Lord of Gifts", and pretended to be good. As Annatar he told the elves how to make magical rings which give power to their wearers.
+Sauron and the elves together made sixteen rings. The Elves also made three rings by themselves, called Vilya, Nenya and Narya. These nineteen rings were the Rings of Power. But Sauron secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring. In this Ring Sauron put half of his power. He planned to control the wearers of the other rings with this One Ring. But the Elves finally realized that Annatar really was the evil Sauron and hid the Rings of Power.
+
+Sauron then started a war. During this war he took back the sixteen rings which he had made together with the Elves. Seven of these rings he gave to the kings of the dwarves, and nine rings he gave to human kings. These human kings became the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, ghostly servants of Sauron.
+
+Led by Gil-galad and Elendil, the Elves and the Men of Gondor and Arnor formed the Last Alliance of Men and Elves to fight Sauron. There was a long war and siege of Sauron's fortress Barad-dûr. In the last battle, Gil-galad and Elendil were killed by Sauron. After his father's death, Elendil' son Isildur cut off the One Ring from Sauron's hand. Sauron was defeated and the war ended.
+
+Because half of Sauron's power was in the One Ring, Sauron did not die fully. His spirit still existed as long as the Ring existed. The elves told Isildur to destroy the One Ring, but Isildur did not want to and kept it.
+
+The One Ring was lost when Isildur was attacked by Orcs. Isildur tried to escape, but he was killed when he lost the Ring. In the Third Age, the Ring was found by the Stoor hobbit Déagol, who was killed by his friend Sméagol over the Ring. Sméagol went to live under the Misty Mountains, where he kept the Ring for five hundred years, and he became known by the name Gollum.
+
+In The Hobbit the Ring is found by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. He thinks it is an unimportant 'magic ring' that simply makes its wearer invisible. Bilbo keeps it, and brings it back with him to the Shire at the end of his journey. There the One Ring stayed until the beginning of the story of The Lord of the Rings.
+
+The book begins in the Third Age of Middle-earth, in the Shire, the land of the hobbits. Sixty years after his adventures in the book The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is living in the Shire with his adopted cousin Frodo Baggins. But Bilbo wants to make another long journey. After a birthday party for his 111th birthday, and Frodo's 33rd birthday, Bilbo leaves the Shire. His home, Bag End, and the One Ring now belong to Frodo. For another eighteen years nothing happens in Frodo's life.
+
+In April of the year 3018, the wizard Gandalf the Grey, who is a friend of Bilbo and Frodo, comes to Bag End. He tells Frodo that his 'magic ring' is really the One Ring of Sauron, and tells him its backstory. Sauron is returning and getting more powerful, because he could not die while the Ring still existed. Sauron is now also searching for the Ring. Gandalf tells Frodo that he has to leave the Shire and take the One Ring to Rivendell, an Elven city. Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's gardener and servant, will go with Frodo. Gandalf promises to meet the two hobbits halfway in the town Bree. Then Gandalf leaves.
+
+Frodo and Sam prepare to leave the Shire in September 3018. On their way to leave the Shire they are already followed by Sauron's Ringwraiths. Frodo's cousins, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took also come with them. The four hobbits journey eastwards through the Old Forest, and over the Barrow-downs. They come to Bree, but Gandalf is not there. They meet a man named Strider, and they get a letter from Gandalf. In the letter they are told to go with Strider, who is really named Aragorn.
+
+The hobbits continue their journey to Rivendell with Aragorn. On the mountain Weathertop they are attacked by the Ringwraiths, and Frodo is badly wounded by their leader, the Witch-king. Aragorn can defend them, and helps Frodo to stay alive. Along the way they meet the elf Glorfindel. Shortly before Rivendell they are attacked again. Frodo can flee on Glorfindel's horse, followed by the Ringwraiths. Frodo crosses the river Bruinen, beyond which is Rivendell, but the Ringwraiths still follow him. Suddenly the river floods, which carries the Ringwraiths away. Frodo falls unconscious because of the stab wound.
+
+Frodo wakes up in Rivendell. He has been healed by the elven lord Elrond, and Frodo's friends are also well. Gandalf is in Rivendell, as are messengers from other peoples. Frodo also meets Bilbo again, who has lived in Rivendell for the past years.
+
+The next day the Council of Elrond is held. The messengers of the different peoples all tell the stories why they have come, which are connected to Sauron's doings. Elrond tells them of Sauron and the One Ring. Many other things are told and revealed. Aragorn is the descendant of Isildur. The wizard Saruman has betrayed the free peoples and turned to evil. Also, the One Ring cannot be used by anyone except Sauron. The One Ring turns normal people invisible, but it also corrupts them, makes its wearer power-hungry, and the ring only does evil. 
+The Council decides that the One Ring has to be destroyed, which will also truly kill Sauron forever. But the One Ring can only be destroyed if it is thrown into the volcano Mount Doom in Sauron's land Mordor, where the One Ring was made. 
+The Council sends Frodo, the Ring-bearer, to destroy the Ring, and eight companions to help him. These nine people are the Fellowship of the Ring: the four hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, the two men Aragorn and Boromir, and Gandalf the Grey.
+
+At the beginning of the year 3019 the Fellowship begins their long journey. Before they go, Bilbo gives his sword Sting and his Mithril-armour to Frodo. With Gandalf as their leader, the Fellowship first goes southwards through the land Hollin. They try to go east over the Misty Mountains through the Redhorn Pass, but there is too much snow. The Fellowship decides to go under the mountains, through the old Dwarven mines, which are called Khazad-dûm or Moria. They almost manage to go through Moria without anything happening, but near the end they are attacked by Orcs. There is also a Balrog, a demonic evil creature from the First Age. Gandalf protects the Fellowship, but he and the Balrog fall into an abyss. Aragorn leads the rest of the Fellowship out of Moria.
+
+Now east of the Misty Mountains, the remaining Fellowship comes to the forest Lothlórien, the land of the Galadhrim, a wood-elven people. The Fellowship is welcomed by Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn, the rulers of Lothlórien. The Fellowship stay for a while. 
+When the Fellowship leaves Lóthlórien, the elves give them boats with which they can travel down the river Anduin. Each member of the Fellowship also gets a present from Lady Galadriel.
+
+The Fellowship travel down the river Anduin until they reach the Emyn Muil and the waterfall Rauros. There they stop to decide where to go now: south to Boromir's home city Minas Tirith, or east to Mordor. Frodo goes for a walk to help him decide. He meets Boromir, who says that the Fellowship should go to Minas Tirith. Boromir also begins to talk about using the Ring against Sauron. Frodo realizes that Boromir is influenced by the One Ring. Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, but Frodo puts the Ring on, becomes invisible and escapes. Boromir becomes himself again and is very sorry for what he tried to do. 
+Frodo decides that he will go alone to Mordor, so that the Ring cannot influence or hurt anyone else. The rest of the Fellowship are worrying where Frodo is. When Boromir comes and tells them that Frodo has run away, all of the Fellowship go and search for him. 
+Sam thinks about the situation, and realizes that Frodo wants to go to Mordor alone. Sam runs back to the boats, and catches Frodo leaving. In the end Frodo and Sam go east to Mordor together, to destroy the One Ring, and hoping that their friends in the Fellowship will be well.
+
+The book begins with Aragorn, who finds a dying Boromir. Boromir tells him that they were attacked by Orcs, who took Merry and Pippin with them. Boromir says he is sorry for everything and dies. Legolas and Gimli arrive. As a funeral, the three put Boromir's body in one of their boats, which they let fall down the waterfall Rauros. They find out that Frodo and Sam left them to go to Mordor, and that the Orcs that attacked them were Saruman's Orcs, who have taken Merry and Pippin. They decide to follow the Orcs westwards to save Merry and Pippin. West of the Emyn Muil they come into the land Rohan, home of the Rohirrim, the Horse-lords. They meet a group of Rohirrim led by Éomer, nephew of King Théoden of Rohan. Éomer and his men have killed the Orc group on the border of the forest Fangorn, but did not see Merry or Pippin. Éomer gives them two horses, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ride to the Fangorn forest.
+
+Merry and Pippin were caught and taken away by a group of Saruman's Orcs, the Uruk-hai. When the Orcs are surrounded and killed by the Rohirrim group, the two hobbits escape into the Fangorn Forest. There they meet Treebeard, an Ent. Ents are giant tree-like creatures. Treebeard takes the hobbits with him, and they tell him what happens in the world outside Fangorn. The Ents have a meeting called the Entmoot. During the Entmoot, the Ents decide to fight Saruman. Treebeard, the other Ents, and the two hobbits go to Isengard, Saruman's home.
+
+In Fangorn, Aragon, Legolas and Gimli meet Gandalf. He had died, but was sent back to Middle-earth as Gandalf the White, to further help the fight against Sauron. Gandalf tells them that Merry and Pippin are well. They then go to Edoras, the capital of Rohan. Gandalf tells King Théoden that they have to go to war against Saruman. Gríma Wormtongue, a spy and servant of Saruman, is cast out. The people of Edoras, led by Éomer's sister Éowyn, flee to Dunharrow in the White Mountains, while the army of the Rohirrim goes to their fortress at Helm's Deep. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go with the Rohirrim warriors, but Gandalf leaves once more without notice. Saruman sends his army of ten thousand Uruk-hai, Orcs, and Dunland men to Helm's Deep. The next morning Gandalf arrives with another Rohirrim army. They defeat Saruman's army, and win the Battle of the Hornburg.
+
+Gandalf, his friends, and a small group of Rohirrim then go to Isengard, Saruman's home. But when they arrive it has already been destroyed by the Ents. They also meet Merry and Pippin there. They talk to Saruman, who still hides in his indestructible tower Orthanc. Gandalf cast him from the Order of Wizards. They find the palantír, which was thrown from the tower by Gríma. The Palantíri are magical black stones with which one can see far away things, and communicate with other palantíri. The group leaves Isengard and rests. Pippin steals the palantír and looks in, and because of this is discovered by Sauron. The group flees the place before the Nazgûl find them. Gandalf and Pippin go to Minas Tirith, while the Rohirrim and other members of the Fellowship go back to Helm's Deep.
+
+Frodo and Sam are in the Emyn Muil mountains and journey eastwards to Mordor. While they are still in the Emyn Muil, they are attacked by Gollum. But the hobbits can defeat and catch him. Gollum has to promise to show them the way into Mordor. They go through the Dead Marshes and come to the Morannon, the Black Gate of Mordor. They cannot go in, but Gollum says he knows a secret way into Mordor. 
+Frodo, Sam, and Gollum travel south through Ithilien. There they see a battle between a group of Southrons from Harad and a group of Rangers of Gondor. The hobbits are caught by the Gondorian group, which is led by Faramir, who is Boromir's brother. But the next day Faramir lets the hobbits leave, because he also believes that the One Ring has to be destroyed. 
+Gollum leads the hobbits into Cirith Ungol in the Mountains of Shadow, but leaves the hobbits there alone. They are hunted by Shelob, a giant spider living in these tunnels. After almost escaping, Shelob stings Frodo, but is wounded and driven off by Sam. Sam believes Frodo is dead, and takes the Ring to continue the quest and destroy it. Frodo's body is found and taken away by a group of Orcs. Sam follows them. The leaders of the Orc group are talking, and Sam hears them say that Frodo is paralyzed, but still alive.
+
+Gandalf and Pippin arrive in Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. There they meet Denethor II, Steward of Gondor, and father of Boromir and Faramir. Pippin becomes a member of the Guards of the Citadel. Minas Tirith prepares for war.
+
+The Rohirrim and Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Merry are on their way to Helm's Deep. Along the way they meet the Grey Company coming from Rivendell. It is a group of thirty Dúnedain, which are Aragorn's people. With the group are also Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond. Aragorn uses the palantír. Aragorn decides to take to the Paths of the Dead. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the Grey Company go to Edoras, Dunharrow, and through the Paths of the Dead through the White Mountains. There Aragorn calls an army of dead spirits to help him. The Grey Company and the Dead Men of Dunharrow then go east.
+
+The Rohirrim and Merry come to Dunharrow. King Théoden takes the Rohirrim armies and goes to help Gondor in the war. Merry is not allowed to go with them, but he secretly goes with a warrior named Dernhelm.
+
+In Minas Tirith they meet Faramir, who tells them of his meeting with Frodo. The next day Faramir goes off to defend the old city Osgiliath, but the city falls, and so do the outer defenses of Minas Tirith. During the retreat Faramir is badly wounded. Minas Tirith is besieged by the armies of Mordor, led by the Witch-king, the leader of the Nazgûl who (it was said) could not be killed by any man. Denethor goes insane and burns himself, and almost also kills the injured Faramir, but this is prevented by Pippin and Gandalf.
+
+The Rohirrim arrive. The armies of Gondor and Rohan fight the armies of Mordor in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. There, King Théoden is killed. Dernhelm, who was really Éowyn (a woman), kills the Witch-king with Merry's help. Aragorn comes with a fleet of black ships and another army of men from southern Gondor up the river Anduin. Together they win the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
+
+Aragorn heals the wounded and sick Faramir, Éowyn, Merry, and many others, proving that he is the rightful King of Gondor. Legolas and Gimli go into Minas Tirith and meet Merry and Pippin again. There they also tell how they got the black ships with the help of the Army of the Dead. The leaders of the armies of Men decide to attack Mordor, as a distraction so that Frodo can destroy the One Ring. Aragorn and Gandalf lead an army of 7000 men to the Black Gate of Mordor. There they fight the Battle of the Morannon against the overwhelmingly large army of Sauron. During the battle Pippin falls unconscious, but he hears that the Great Eagles have come to help them.
+
+Samwise comes to the Tower of Cirith Ungol, but the different Orc groups in it had a fight and almost all of them are now dead. Sam frees Frodo and gives him back the One Ring. The two hobbits disguise themselves as orcs, escape from the Tower and continue their journey through Mordor. It is a hard journey, and the Ring's influence on Frodo is very strong now. One time the hobbits are forced to walk with an army of orcs, but they can escape without being discovered.
+The hobbits come to Mount Doom, where they are attacked by Gollum, who still wants the One Ring. Frodo goes on alone into Mount Doom, but Sam has pity for Gollum and lets him live. Sam follows Frodo into Mount Doom. Frodo is finally overpowered by the One Ring, says it belongs to him and puts the Ring on, which makes Sauron know that he and the Ring are there. Gollum comes back once more and fights with Frodo. Gollum bites off Frodo's finger with the Ring. Gollum is happy to have his Ring back, but makes a mistake: Gollum and the One Ring fall into the volcano, and the Ring is destroyed. Sauron fully dies and his fortress Barad-dûr is destroyed.
+
+At the Battle of the Morannon, the Orcs and other evil creatures no longer know what to do and are defeated easily, and the Battle is won. Gandalf calls three of the Eagles, who then rescue Frodo and Sam.
+
+They all return to Minas Tirith. Aragorn becomes King of Gondor and Arnor. Elves from Rivendell and Lothlórien come to Minas Tirith. Aragon marries Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Elrond. The Fellowship, the elves, and the Rohirrim go back to Rohan. King Théoden is buried. Éomer officially becomes King of Rohan, and Éowyn and Faramir are married. They go on to Helm's Deep, were the fellowship finally splits. Aragorn goes back to Minas Tirith, and Legolas and Gimli also leave to travel to their homes in the northeast. The elves, hobbits and Gandalf go on. At Isedgard they are told that Saruman has left. Galadriel and the Lothlórien-elves leave the group to go back home east over the mountains. The others come to Rivendell, where the hobbits meet Bilbo again.
+
+The four hobbits and Gandalf leave Rivendell, to travel back to the Shire. Gandalf leaves the hobbits after Bree. The four hobbits come to the Shire, but Saruman with his men has taken over the land. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin lead the other hobbits in the fight against them, and they free themselves and the Shire. After a battle, the four hobbits find Saruman and Gríma at Bag End. Frodo wants to send them away unhurt, but Saruman is killed by Gríma. Gríma is shot by hobbit archers.
+
+Some years later Frodo and Sam go to meet Bilbo, Elrond, and Galadriel, and some other elves. They all go to the Grey Havens, where they meet Gandalf, and also Merry and Pippin. The Ring-bearers Bilbo and Frodo, together with Gandalf and the elves, leave Middle-earth, and go west across the sea to Valinor. The Fourth Age of Middle-earth begins. The three remaining hobbits go back to the Shire, and Sam returns to his wife and child.
+
+The Lord of the Rings has been adapted, or made into a movie, a musical, a radio play, and has been made into an animated and three live-action films. Most known is probably The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) directed by Peter Jackson.

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+The Seine is a river in France. It flows into the English Channel between Le Havre and Honfleur. It is 777 kilometres (483 mi) long.[1] It is the second-longest river in France. Other important cities along its course are Paris, Troyes and Rouen. Its drainage basin has a surface of 78,650 kilometres (48,870.84 mi). The Seine starts in Source-Seine, in Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, at an height of 444 metres (1,457 ft).
+
+Between Rouen and the sea, ocean-going vessels of up to 280 metres (920 ft) in length, and 150,000 tons in weight can travel the Seine. This section of the river has a length of about 120 kilometres (75 mi). Ships of a draft of up to 10 metres (33 ft) can circulate. Draft is a word describe the height of the part of a ship that is below the water line. There are three bridges in this section. They can be raised. The maximum air draft (or height above the water line) of a ship is 50 metres (160 ft). Because there are few briges, the river can be crossed by ferry, at different locations. The port of Rouen is an important maritime port in France; it is the most important port in Europe for cereals,  and the most important port in France for flour and fertilizers. Even if the port of Le Havre is more important for petroleum, that of Rouen is still important. About 25 million tons of produce is handled by the port of Rouen each year.
+
+The course of the river was corrected between Rouen and Paris in  the 19th century. There are seven locks. Barges with merchanise, of a capacity of up to 350 t can circulate. The dimension of the lock determines the maximum dimension of the ship. When most canals were built in France, the mister for public works, Charles de Freycinet  determined the maximum length of the locks. As a result, the maximum dimension of the ship are 38.5 metres (126 ft) by 5.05 metres (16.6 ft), with a draft of 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in). In the case of the French canals, the maximum draft is 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in). The load of a peniche is about that of ten lorries or eight rail waggons.  Other ship types that can circulate have a  capacity of 800 tonnes (790 long tons; 880 short tons) to 1,350 tonnes (1,330 long tons; 1,490 short tons). Convois of barges with a length between 40 metres (130 ft) to 70 metres (230 ft) and can transport betweeen 3,000 tonnes (3,000 long tons; 3,300 short tons) and 10,000 tonnes (9,800 long tons; 11,000 short tons) of freight. Other ships include river-vessels that can transport up to 4,000 tonnes (3,900 long tons; 4,400 short tons) of freight.
+
+The port of Paris is the most important fluvial port in France: About 20.2 million tons of merchanise are handled each year, 20 miilon  tons of this merchandise come from fluvial transport.  There is a project called Seine–Nord Europe Canal, to build a high-capacity canal to connect the Paris region to the Ports of Antwerp, Dunkerque and Rotterdam, for large ships of a with of 11.5 metres (38 ft) width and 185 metres (607 ft) length.
+
+Different floods of the river have been reported. The oldest report is from Emperor Julian who reported a flood of the river in his work Misopogon in the year 358. Gregory of Tours reported a flood in  February 528 in his Historia Francorum.
+
+Boat race à Argenteuil by Claude Monet (Musée d'Orsay)
+
+The Seine in Bourgival by Alfred Sisley (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
+
+The river has inspired different painters, mainly in the 19th and 20th century. Honoré de Balzac describes it in many of his books. Gustave Flaubert uses the river as a metaphor or image to describe the flow of time. Other authors include Jacques Prévert, and Guillaume Apollinaire.

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+The Seine is a river in France. It flows into the English Channel between Le Havre and Honfleur. It is 777 kilometres (483 mi) long.[1] It is the second-longest river in France. Other important cities along its course are Paris, Troyes and Rouen. Its drainage basin has a surface of 78,650 kilometres (48,870.84 mi). The Seine starts in Source-Seine, in Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, at an height of 444 metres (1,457 ft).
+
+Between Rouen and the sea, ocean-going vessels of up to 280 metres (920 ft) in length, and 150,000 tons in weight can travel the Seine. This section of the river has a length of about 120 kilometres (75 mi). Ships of a draft of up to 10 metres (33 ft) can circulate. Draft is a word describe the height of the part of a ship that is below the water line. There are three bridges in this section. They can be raised. The maximum air draft (or height above the water line) of a ship is 50 metres (160 ft). Because there are few briges, the river can be crossed by ferry, at different locations. The port of Rouen is an important maritime port in France; it is the most important port in Europe for cereals,  and the most important port in France for flour and fertilizers. Even if the port of Le Havre is more important for petroleum, that of Rouen is still important. About 25 million tons of produce is handled by the port of Rouen each year.
+
+The course of the river was corrected between Rouen and Paris in  the 19th century. There are seven locks. Barges with merchanise, of a capacity of up to 350 t can circulate. The dimension of the lock determines the maximum dimension of the ship. When most canals were built in France, the mister for public works, Charles de Freycinet  determined the maximum length of the locks. As a result, the maximum dimension of the ship are 38.5 metres (126 ft) by 5.05 metres (16.6 ft), with a draft of 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in). In the case of the French canals, the maximum draft is 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in). The load of a peniche is about that of ten lorries or eight rail waggons.  Other ship types that can circulate have a  capacity of 800 tonnes (790 long tons; 880 short tons) to 1,350 tonnes (1,330 long tons; 1,490 short tons). Convois of barges with a length between 40 metres (130 ft) to 70 metres (230 ft) and can transport betweeen 3,000 tonnes (3,000 long tons; 3,300 short tons) and 10,000 tonnes (9,800 long tons; 11,000 short tons) of freight. Other ships include river-vessels that can transport up to 4,000 tonnes (3,900 long tons; 4,400 short tons) of freight.
+
+The port of Paris is the most important fluvial port in France: About 20.2 million tons of merchanise are handled each year, 20 miilon  tons of this merchandise come from fluvial transport.  There is a project called Seine–Nord Europe Canal, to build a high-capacity canal to connect the Paris region to the Ports of Antwerp, Dunkerque and Rotterdam, for large ships of a with of 11.5 metres (38 ft) width and 185 metres (607 ft) length.
+
+Different floods of the river have been reported. The oldest report is from Emperor Julian who reported a flood of the river in his work Misopogon in the year 358. Gregory of Tours reported a flood in  February 528 in his Historia Francorum.
+
+Boat race à Argenteuil by Claude Monet (Musée d'Orsay)
+
+The Seine in Bourgival by Alfred Sisley (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
+
+The river has inspired different painters, mainly in the 19th and 20th century. Honoré de Balzac describes it in many of his books. Gustave Flaubert uses the river as a metaphor or image to describe the flow of time. Other authors include Jacques Prévert, and Guillaume Apollinaire.

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+An earthquake is the sudden movement of the Earth's tectonic plates, resulting in shaking of the ground. This shaking can result in the damage of various structures such as buildings and further breakdown of the Earth's surface.
+
+The study of earthquakes is called seismology.[1] Earthquakes are usually quite brief, but there may be many over a short time frame. The sudden release of tension in the tectonic plates sends waves of energy that travel through the Earth. Seismology studies the cause, frequency, type and size of earthquakes.
+
+There are large earthquakes and small earthquakes. Large earthquakes can take down buildings and cause death and injury. Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismographs. The magnitude of an earthquake and the intensity of shaking is usually reported on the Richter scale. The Richter Scale was invented by Charles Francis Richter in 1935. On the scale, 2 is scarcely noticeable, and magnitude 5 (or more) causes damage over a wide area.
+
+An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, which can cause just as much destruction as the earthquake itself in mountainous areas. Earthquakes can also cause landslides. Earthquakes are part of the Earth's natural rock cycle.
+The impact of an earthquake can be measured by a seismometer. It detects the vibrations caused and it puts these movements on a seismograph. The strength, or magnitude, of an earthquake, is measured using the Richter scale. The Richter scale is numbered 0-9. The largest earthquake ever measured was a 9.5 on the scale a 10 has never been recorded.
+
+Scientists cannot predict an earthquake before it happens. But we do know where earthquakes might happen in the future, like close to fault lines.An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, this can cause just as much destruction as the earthquake itself.
+
+Earthquakes sometimes hit cities and kill hundreds or thousands of people. Most earthquakes happen along the Pacific Ring of Fire but the biggest ones mostly happen in other places. Tectonically active places are places where earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are frequent.
+
+Earthquakes are caused by tectonic movements in the Earth's crust. The main cause is when tectonic plates ride one over the other, causing orogeny (mountain building), and severe earthquakes.
+
+The boundaries between moving plates form the largest fault surfaces on Earth. When they stick, motion between the plates leads to increasing stress. This continues until the stress rises and breaks, suddenly allowing sliding over the locked portion of the fault. This releases the stored energy as shock waves. The San Andreas fault in San Francisco, and Rift valley fault in Africa are faults like this.
+1. Volcanic Earthquakes : Earthquakes which are caused by volcanic eruptions are quite devastating. However, these are confined to areas of active volcanoes.
+2. Collapse Earthquakes : In areas of intense mining activity, often the roofs of underground mines collapse and minor tremors take place. These are called collapse earthquakes.
+
+
+
+There are three main types of geological fault that may cause an earthquake: normal, reverse (thrust) and strike-slip. Normal faults occur mainly in areas where the crust is being extended. Reverse faults occur in areas where the crust is being shortened. Strike-slip faults are steep structures where the two sides of the fault slip horizontally past each other.
+
+Most earthquakes form part of a sequence, related to each other in terms of location and time.[2] Most earthquake clusters consist of small tremors which cause little to no damage, but there is a theory that earthquakes can recur in a regular pattern.[3]
+
+A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger earthquake, called the mainshock.
+
+An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude. Aftershocks are formed as the crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock.[2]
+
+Earthquake swarms are sequences of earthquakes striking in a specific area within a short period of time. They are different from earthquakes followed by a series of aftershocks by the fact that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock, therefore none have notably higher magnitudes than the other. An example of an earthquake swarm is the 2004 activity at Yellowstone National Park.[4]
+
+Sometimes a series of earthquakes occur in a sort of earthquake storm, where the earthquakes strike a fault in clusters, each triggered by the shaking or stress redistribution of the previous earthquakes. Similar to aftershocks but on adjacent segments of fault, these storms occur over the course of years, and with some of the later earthquakes as damaging as the early ones. Such a pattern occurred in the North Anatolian fault in Turkey in the 20th century.[5][6]
+
+Tsunami or a chain of fast moving waves in the ocean caused by powerful earthquakes is a very serious challenge for people's safety and for earthquake engineering. Those waves can inundate coastal areas, destroy houses and even swipe away whole towns.[7] This is a danger for the whole mankind.
+
+Unfortunately, tsunamis can not be prevented. However, there are warning systems[8] which may warn the population before the big waves reach the land to let them enough time to rush to safety.we aware of this tsunami
+
+Earthquake-proof buildings are constructed to withstand the destructive force of an earthquake. This depends upon its type of construction, shape, mass distribution, and rigidity. Different combinations are used. Square, rectangular, and shell-shaped buildings can withstand earthquakes better than skyscrapers. To reduce stress, a building's ground floor can be supported by extremely rigid, hollow columns, while the rest of the building is supported by flexible columns inside the hollow columns. Another method is to use rollers or rubber pads to separate the base columns from the ground, allowing the columns to shake parallel to each other during an earthquake.
+
+To help prevent a roof from collapsing, builders make the roof out of light-weight materials. Outdoor walls are made with stronger and more reinforced materials such as steel or reinforced concrete. During an earthquake flexible windows may help hold the windows together so they don’t break.

ensimple/5337.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+An earthquake is the sudden movement of the Earth's tectonic plates, resulting in shaking of the ground. This shaking can result in the damage of various structures such as buildings and further breakdown of the Earth's surface.
+
+The study of earthquakes is called seismology.[1] Earthquakes are usually quite brief, but there may be many over a short time frame. The sudden release of tension in the tectonic plates sends waves of energy that travel through the Earth. Seismology studies the cause, frequency, type and size of earthquakes.
+
+There are large earthquakes and small earthquakes. Large earthquakes can take down buildings and cause death and injury. Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismographs. The magnitude of an earthquake and the intensity of shaking is usually reported on the Richter scale. The Richter Scale was invented by Charles Francis Richter in 1935. On the scale, 2 is scarcely noticeable, and magnitude 5 (or more) causes damage over a wide area.
+
+An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, which can cause just as much destruction as the earthquake itself in mountainous areas. Earthquakes can also cause landslides. Earthquakes are part of the Earth's natural rock cycle.
+The impact of an earthquake can be measured by a seismometer. It detects the vibrations caused and it puts these movements on a seismograph. The strength, or magnitude, of an earthquake, is measured using the Richter scale. The Richter scale is numbered 0-9. The largest earthquake ever measured was a 9.5 on the scale a 10 has never been recorded.
+
+Scientists cannot predict an earthquake before it happens. But we do know where earthquakes might happen in the future, like close to fault lines.An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, this can cause just as much destruction as the earthquake itself.
+
+Earthquakes sometimes hit cities and kill hundreds or thousands of people. Most earthquakes happen along the Pacific Ring of Fire but the biggest ones mostly happen in other places. Tectonically active places are places where earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are frequent.
+
+Earthquakes are caused by tectonic movements in the Earth's crust. The main cause is when tectonic plates ride one over the other, causing orogeny (mountain building), and severe earthquakes.
+
+The boundaries between moving plates form the largest fault surfaces on Earth. When they stick, motion between the plates leads to increasing stress. This continues until the stress rises and breaks, suddenly allowing sliding over the locked portion of the fault. This releases the stored energy as shock waves. The San Andreas fault in San Francisco, and Rift valley fault in Africa are faults like this.
+1. Volcanic Earthquakes : Earthquakes which are caused by volcanic eruptions are quite devastating. However, these are confined to areas of active volcanoes.
+2. Collapse Earthquakes : In areas of intense mining activity, often the roofs of underground mines collapse and minor tremors take place. These are called collapse earthquakes.
+
+
+
+There are three main types of geological fault that may cause an earthquake: normal, reverse (thrust) and strike-slip. Normal faults occur mainly in areas where the crust is being extended. Reverse faults occur in areas where the crust is being shortened. Strike-slip faults are steep structures where the two sides of the fault slip horizontally past each other.
+
+Most earthquakes form part of a sequence, related to each other in terms of location and time.[2] Most earthquake clusters consist of small tremors which cause little to no damage, but there is a theory that earthquakes can recur in a regular pattern.[3]
+
+A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger earthquake, called the mainshock.
+
+An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude. Aftershocks are formed as the crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock.[2]
+
+Earthquake swarms are sequences of earthquakes striking in a specific area within a short period of time. They are different from earthquakes followed by a series of aftershocks by the fact that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock, therefore none have notably higher magnitudes than the other. An example of an earthquake swarm is the 2004 activity at Yellowstone National Park.[4]
+
+Sometimes a series of earthquakes occur in a sort of earthquake storm, where the earthquakes strike a fault in clusters, each triggered by the shaking or stress redistribution of the previous earthquakes. Similar to aftershocks but on adjacent segments of fault, these storms occur over the course of years, and with some of the later earthquakes as damaging as the early ones. Such a pattern occurred in the North Anatolian fault in Turkey in the 20th century.[5][6]
+
+Tsunami or a chain of fast moving waves in the ocean caused by powerful earthquakes is a very serious challenge for people's safety and for earthquake engineering. Those waves can inundate coastal areas, destroy houses and even swipe away whole towns.[7] This is a danger for the whole mankind.
+
+Unfortunately, tsunamis can not be prevented. However, there are warning systems[8] which may warn the population before the big waves reach the land to let them enough time to rush to safety.we aware of this tsunami
+
+Earthquake-proof buildings are constructed to withstand the destructive force of an earthquake. This depends upon its type of construction, shape, mass distribution, and rigidity. Different combinations are used. Square, rectangular, and shell-shaped buildings can withstand earthquakes better than skyscrapers. To reduce stress, a building's ground floor can be supported by extremely rigid, hollow columns, while the rest of the building is supported by flexible columns inside the hollow columns. Another method is to use rollers or rubber pads to separate the base columns from the ground, allowing the columns to shake parallel to each other during an earthquake.
+
+To help prevent a roof from collapsing, builders make the roof out of light-weight materials. Outdoor walls are made with stronger and more reinforced materials such as steel or reinforced concrete. During an earthquake flexible windows may help hold the windows together so they don’t break.

ensimple/5338.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+An earthquake is the sudden movement of the Earth's tectonic plates, resulting in shaking of the ground. This shaking can result in the damage of various structures such as buildings and further breakdown of the Earth's surface.
+
+The study of earthquakes is called seismology.[1] Earthquakes are usually quite brief, but there may be many over a short time frame. The sudden release of tension in the tectonic plates sends waves of energy that travel through the Earth. Seismology studies the cause, frequency, type and size of earthquakes.
+
+There are large earthquakes and small earthquakes. Large earthquakes can take down buildings and cause death and injury. Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismographs. The magnitude of an earthquake and the intensity of shaking is usually reported on the Richter scale. The Richter Scale was invented by Charles Francis Richter in 1935. On the scale, 2 is scarcely noticeable, and magnitude 5 (or more) causes damage over a wide area.
+
+An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, which can cause just as much destruction as the earthquake itself in mountainous areas. Earthquakes can also cause landslides. Earthquakes are part of the Earth's natural rock cycle.
+The impact of an earthquake can be measured by a seismometer. It detects the vibrations caused and it puts these movements on a seismograph. The strength, or magnitude, of an earthquake, is measured using the Richter scale. The Richter scale is numbered 0-9. The largest earthquake ever measured was a 9.5 on the scale a 10 has never been recorded.
+
+Scientists cannot predict an earthquake before it happens. But we do know where earthquakes might happen in the future, like close to fault lines.An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, this can cause just as much destruction as the earthquake itself.
+
+Earthquakes sometimes hit cities and kill hundreds or thousands of people. Most earthquakes happen along the Pacific Ring of Fire but the biggest ones mostly happen in other places. Tectonically active places are places where earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are frequent.
+
+Earthquakes are caused by tectonic movements in the Earth's crust. The main cause is when tectonic plates ride one over the other, causing orogeny (mountain building), and severe earthquakes.
+
+The boundaries between moving plates form the largest fault surfaces on Earth. When they stick, motion between the plates leads to increasing stress. This continues until the stress rises and breaks, suddenly allowing sliding over the locked portion of the fault. This releases the stored energy as shock waves. The San Andreas fault in San Francisco, and Rift valley fault in Africa are faults like this.
+1. Volcanic Earthquakes : Earthquakes which are caused by volcanic eruptions are quite devastating. However, these are confined to areas of active volcanoes.
+2. Collapse Earthquakes : In areas of intense mining activity, often the roofs of underground mines collapse and minor tremors take place. These are called collapse earthquakes.
+
+
+
+There are three main types of geological fault that may cause an earthquake: normal, reverse (thrust) and strike-slip. Normal faults occur mainly in areas where the crust is being extended. Reverse faults occur in areas where the crust is being shortened. Strike-slip faults are steep structures where the two sides of the fault slip horizontally past each other.
+
+Most earthquakes form part of a sequence, related to each other in terms of location and time.[2] Most earthquake clusters consist of small tremors which cause little to no damage, but there is a theory that earthquakes can recur in a regular pattern.[3]
+
+A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger earthquake, called the mainshock.
+
+An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude. Aftershocks are formed as the crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock.[2]
+
+Earthquake swarms are sequences of earthquakes striking in a specific area within a short period of time. They are different from earthquakes followed by a series of aftershocks by the fact that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock, therefore none have notably higher magnitudes than the other. An example of an earthquake swarm is the 2004 activity at Yellowstone National Park.[4]
+
+Sometimes a series of earthquakes occur in a sort of earthquake storm, where the earthquakes strike a fault in clusters, each triggered by the shaking or stress redistribution of the previous earthquakes. Similar to aftershocks but on adjacent segments of fault, these storms occur over the course of years, and with some of the later earthquakes as damaging as the early ones. Such a pattern occurred in the North Anatolian fault in Turkey in the 20th century.[5][6]
+
+Tsunami or a chain of fast moving waves in the ocean caused by powerful earthquakes is a very serious challenge for people's safety and for earthquake engineering. Those waves can inundate coastal areas, destroy houses and even swipe away whole towns.[7] This is a danger for the whole mankind.
+
+Unfortunately, tsunamis can not be prevented. However, there are warning systems[8] which may warn the population before the big waves reach the land to let them enough time to rush to safety.we aware of this tsunami
+
+Earthquake-proof buildings are constructed to withstand the destructive force of an earthquake. This depends upon its type of construction, shape, mass distribution, and rigidity. Different combinations are used. Square, rectangular, and shell-shaped buildings can withstand earthquakes better than skyscrapers. To reduce stress, a building's ground floor can be supported by extremely rigid, hollow columns, while the rest of the building is supported by flexible columns inside the hollow columns. Another method is to use rollers or rubber pads to separate the base columns from the ground, allowing the columns to shake parallel to each other during an earthquake.
+
+To help prevent a roof from collapsing, builders make the roof out of light-weight materials. Outdoor walls are made with stronger and more reinforced materials such as steel or reinforced concrete. During an earthquake flexible windows may help hold the windows together so they don’t break.

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+Table salt is a mineral composed mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl). This is a chemical compound, one of many salts. Salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite.
+
+When salt (sodium chloride) is mixed with water, the salt dissolves into the water, creating a saline solution. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.
+
+Salt can be made by either evaporation or can be mined. To get sea salt, man-made holes are built then filled with sea water. The water evaporates and leaves salt behind.

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+Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a fictional character first appearing in the comic book Christmas on Bear Mountain. The character was created by Carl Barks and has appeared in many comic books, television shows, movies, and video games. Since 1952 Scrooge McDuck has appeared in his own comic book series, called Uncle Scrooge.
+
+Scrooge was born in Scotland in 1867, the son of Fergus McDuck. His family is very poor, so Scrooge emigrates to USA where he finds gold and becomes rich. In 1902 he moves to Duckburg and builds the Money Bin on Killmotor Hill in the center of Duckburg. Over the next years, Scrooge travels the world, learning about many cultures. In 1930, Scrooge became the richest duck on Earth.
+
+In 1942, Scrooge retires and buys a mansion called the Manor McDuck. In 1947, he invites his nephew Donald Duck and his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie to spend Christmas at his mansion. A criminal gang called the Beagle Boys keep trying to steal Scrooge's money.

ensimple/5340.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Table salt is a mineral composed mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl). This is a chemical compound, one of many salts. Salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite.
+
+When salt (sodium chloride) is mixed with water, the salt dissolves into the water, creating a saline solution. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.
+
+Salt can be made by either evaporation or can be mined. To get sea salt, man-made holes are built then filled with sea water. The water evaporates and leaves salt behind.

ensimple/5341.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Table salt is a mineral composed mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl). This is a chemical compound, one of many salts. Salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite.
+
+When salt (sodium chloride) is mixed with water, the salt dissolves into the water, creating a saline solution. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.
+
+Salt can be made by either evaporation or can be mined. To get sea salt, man-made holes are built then filled with sea water. The water evaporates and leaves salt behind.

ensimple/5342.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Table salt is a mineral composed mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl). This is a chemical compound, one of many salts. Salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite.
+
+When salt (sodium chloride) is mixed with water, the salt dissolves into the water, creating a saline solution. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.
+
+Salt can be made by either evaporation or can be mined. To get sea salt, man-made holes are built then filled with sea water. The water evaporates and leaves salt behind.

ensimple/5343.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Table salt is a mineral composed mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl). This is a chemical compound, one of many salts. Salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite.
+
+When salt (sodium chloride) is mixed with water, the salt dissolves into the water, creating a saline solution. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.
+
+Salt can be made by either evaporation or can be mined. To get sea salt, man-made holes are built then filled with sea water. The water evaporates and leaves salt behind.

ensimple/5344.html.txt

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+A week is 7 days in connecting order. There are usually 52 weeks in a year.
+
+In the English language, the days of the week are named after gods in Norse mythology, except for Saturday, which is named after a Roman god.
+
+Depending on the law of a country, the week either starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, or starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. In most countries, Saturday and Sunday are the weekend. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is a religious day for Muslims, Jews, and Christians, respectively.

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+– in Africa  (light blue & dark grey)– in the African Union  (light blue)
+
+The Republic of Senegal (French République da Sénégal) is a country in West Africa. The capital is Dakar. 
+Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres. It has population of about 13 million. The climate is tropical with two seasons: the dry season and the rainy cold  season . Senegal was given independence by France in 1960.
+
+Major industries are fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials, ship construction and repair. Peanuts, sugarcane, cotton, green beans, industrial tomato, cherry tomato, melon, and mango are important cash crops.
+
+French is the official language. Since April 2012 Senegal's president has been Macky Sall.
+
+In the 15th century, Portuguese people came to Gorée Island off the coast of Dakar. In the 17th century, French people and Dutch people came there, too. These European countries used the island as a trading post in slaves from the mainland, controlled by the Muslim Wolof Empires. Slavery was later made illegal by France, but soon after, around 1850, the French started to conquer the Wolof. By 1902 Senegal was a part of the French colony French West Africa.
+
+In January 1959, Senegal and the French Sudan became one to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent on June 20, 1960, as a result of the independence and transfer of power agreement signed with France on April 4, 1960. This did not last long and Senegal and Mali broke apart into separate nations. Between 1982 and 1989 Senegal and The Gambia joined together to make Senegambia.
+
+In the north of Senegal is the Senegal River. To the north of the river is Mauritania. The nation borders Mali in the east, Guinea-Bissau in the south, and Guinea in the south-east. The Gambia is another country inside of Senegal, along the Gambia River. It is about 300 km long.
+
+The north of Senegal is part of the Sahel. The highest mountain is 581 m high. The rainy season is between June and October. The average temperature on the coast is about 24° C, and inland about 27° C.
+

ensimple/5346.html.txt

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+There are several meanings of the word sense.  This page is for disambiguation - there are more detailed articles on each meaning:
+
+When a word has several meanings, one can refer to it as being used "in the sense of..." some context or other.  In Simple English for instance we avoid using words in unusual senses.
+
+The human sensory system is usually said to have six senses:
+
+Other animals may have other senses. Fish have lateral lines which detect changes in the water pressure around them, and some can detect changes in electric fields around them.
+
+Sense in this context is the meaning conveyed by language.
+
+Another use is to flag whether an argument or statement is correct and understood.  "That makes no sense" or "That is nonsense" are examples from everyday speech.
+
+A variation of this is to say that something does not make "economic sense".  Usually these words signal a political dispute or some failure to define terms correctly.
+
+The term "common sense" is thinking based on a wide experience of life. It used to mean practical wisdom. It has a long history of being used in politics, often to mean that some idea will be accepted or rejected because of human nature (what people are like).
+

ensimple/5347.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Existence usually means "the state or fact of being", but there are many different views on the meaning of the word existence, and what it means to exist.
+
+In English, existence is usually connected with the verb "to be".
+
+The first sentence can be understood to say "I exist as a human", and simply speaking, this is probably true. The fourth sentence is more difficult to understand, because it can be understood to say "seven exists as the sum of four and three", but "seven" is not something that we can see or touch like a pen or a human.
+
+The question "What is existence?" is a very important one for philosophers, and many people think Aristotle is the first human being to have thought seriously about the question.

ensimple/5348.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+There are several meanings of the word sense.  This page is for disambiguation - there are more detailed articles on each meaning:
+
+When a word has several meanings, one can refer to it as being used "in the sense of..." some context or other.  In Simple English for instance we avoid using words in unusual senses.
+
+The human sensory system is usually said to have six senses:
+
+Other animals may have other senses. Fish have lateral lines which detect changes in the water pressure around them, and some can detect changes in electric fields around them.
+
+Sense in this context is the meaning conveyed by language.
+
+Another use is to flag whether an argument or statement is correct and understood.  "That makes no sense" or "That is nonsense" are examples from everyday speech.
+
+A variation of this is to say that something does not make "economic sense".  Usually these words signal a political dispute or some failure to define terms correctly.
+
+The term "common sense" is thinking based on a wide experience of life. It used to mean practical wisdom. It has a long history of being used in politics, often to mean that some idea will be accepted or rejected because of human nature (what people are like).
+

ensimple/5349.html.txt

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+Toothpaste is a part liquid paste, applied to the bristles of a toothbrush in order to aid oneself with the act of toothbrushing.
+
+This substance has several purposes, such as removing plaque from one's teeth, whitening one's teeth and freshening one's breath.
+
+Several toothpaste brands specialize in caring for teeth sensitive to certain conditions (for example heat, cold) or flavours (such as sweetness). The majority of these products work by strengthening the tooth enamel, thus easing discomfort and providing the teeth with a protective outer layer.
+
+Traditionally, toothpaste has a minty flavour, as this is said to allow a sense of freshness in the mouth. However, fruit and flavours have been popular in the past. Fruit toothpastes, however, are discouraged by dentists due to their acidic and tooth-eroding properties.
+
+Swallowing big amounts of toothpaste can make humans very sick and is poisonous.[1] Due to this, the FDA started making toothpaste companies to put a notice about swallowing from 1997 to present.

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+"Get in on it."[1]
+
+Baltimore is the biggest city in the U.S. state of Maryland. In 2010 it had about 620,961 people living there.[12] It is not in any county, so it is called an independent city. It is next to the Chesapeake Bay and used to be an important port for trade by ships. There is still some shipping but the Inner Harbor is now mostly famous for shopping and restaurants, and also for the National Aquarium and other museums.
+
+Baltimore is home to the Ravens (football) and Orioles (baseball), both professional sports teams. Its main newspaper is the Baltimore Sun. There is a place for horse races in the city called Pimlico. There are many colleges and universities in Baltimore, like Johns Hopkins University.
+
+The city was made in 1729 and is named after the British Lord Baltimore who started the colony of Maryland. The mayor of this city is Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. She is the second woman to be the mayor of Baltimore, the first was Sheila Dixon. Many governors of Maryland were mayor of Baltimore first. One famous thing that happened in Baltimore was in the War of 1812, when the British attacked the city and Francis Scott Key wrote a song about it called "The Star-Spangled Banner". It is now the national song of the United States.
+
+Some famous people from Baltimore are the Supreme Court judge Thurgood Marshall, the poet and writer Edgar Allen Poe, the baseball player Babe Ruth, the singer Billie Holiday, and the movie director John Waters.
+
+In 1706, the colony of Maryland's General Assembly created the Port of Baltimore at Locust Point. It was built for tobacco trading. The Town of Baltimore was founded on July 30, 1729. It was named after Cecilius Calvert, the British Lord Baltimore. Calvert was the first Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland.[13] Baltimore grew quickly in the 1700s as a granary (place for storing cereals and grains) for the sugar plantations in the Caribbean.
+
+Baltimore was important in the time leading up to the American Revolution. Leaders like Jonathan Plowman Jr. got the city to refuse to pay taxes to Britain. Merchants (people who buy and sell things) signed agreements to not trade with Britain.[14] The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777. This made Baltimore the capitol of the United States during this time.[15] In 1796, after the war, the Town of Baltimore, nearby Jonestown, and an area called Fells Point were incorporated as the City of Baltimore. (This means that these areas all merged and became the City of Baltimore.) The city was a part of Baltimore County until 1851. It then became an independent city.[16]
+
+During the War of 1812, the Battle of Baltimore happened in the city. The British attacked Baltimore on the night of September 13, 1814. This was right after they burned Washington D.C.. United States soldiers from Fort McHenry defended the Inner Harbor. Francis Scott Key watched the battle from a British ship in the harbor. He wrote the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner" about the attack. Later, "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official National Anthem of the United States.
+
+After the war, the number of people who lived in the city grew quickly. The National Road (now part of U.S. Route 40) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) connected the city with big markets in the Midwest. This made Baltimore a very important shipping and manufacturing center. Baltimore was nicknamed "the Monumental City" by President John Quincy Adams in 1827. During an event, Adams gave a toast and said: "Baltimore: the Monumental City – [m]ay the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant."[18] In 1835, the Baltimore bank riots happened. These were one of the worst riots of the antebellum South. (The antebellum period is the time right before the American Civil War.)[19]
+
+During the American Civil War, Maryland did not secede from the Union. (That is, Maryland stayed a part of the Union and did not join the Confederacy.) When Union soldiers marched through the city at the start of the war, some people attacked the soldiers. This started the Baltimore riot of 1861. Four soldiers and 12 civilians were killed. After the riot, Union soldiers occupied (stayed in) Baltimore. During the war, Maryland was governed directly by the federal government and the state government did not have any power. This was to keep the state from seceding (leaving the Union). After the war ended in April 1865, Maryland began governing itself again.
+
+During the 1870s there was an economic depression called the "Panic of 1873." After the Panic, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad company decided to pay its workers less. This caused the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. These strikes stopped train service in Cumberland in western Maryland. On July 20, 1877, the Maryland Governor, John Lee Carroll, ordered the Maryland Army National Guard to stop the strikes. People who supported the railroad workers attacked the national guard soldiers. Soldiers from the 6th Regiment fired their guns at the crowd. 10 people were killed, and 25 people were hurt. This started a riot. Trains were damaged and parts of Camden Station were burned. US Army soldiers came to Baltimore to protect the railroad and end the strike. The riot and strike ended on July 21–22, 1877.[20]
+
+The Great Baltimore Fire started on February 7, 1904. It burned for 30 hours and destroyed 1,500 buildings. More than 70 blocks of downtown burned to the ground. The fire caused about $150 million of damage (US$ 4,183 million in 2020.)[21][22]
+
+The city grew bigger by annexing (absorbing) suburbs from nearby counties. The last suburb was added in 1918. The city added parts of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.[23] In 1948, the state constitution was amended (changed). It now required a special vote by citizens before an area could be added to the city. This stopped the expansion (growth) of the city.[24]
+
+In 1950, the city was 23.8% black. By 1970, it was 46.4% black.[25] After Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, the Baltimore riot of 1968 started. It lasted until April 12, 1968. The riot cost the city about $10 million (US$ 72 million in 2020). During the riot, 11,000 Maryland National Guard soldiers and US Army soldiers tried to protect the city.[26] It is possible to see some effects of the riots today. Parts of North Avenue, Howard Street, Gay Street,  and Pennsylvania Avenue are barren, empty, and not taken care of.[27]
+
+During the 1970s, Baltimore's downtown area, called the "Inner Harbor," was run down and neglected. It was full of empty and abandoned warehouses. The city began trying to redevelop the area. The Baltimore Convention Center was opened in 1979. Harborplace, a shopping and restaurant area, opened in 1980. The National Aquarium in Baltimore (Maryland's largest tourist destination) and the Baltimore Museum of Industry opened in 1981. In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards near the harbor. Six years later the Baltimore Ravens football team moved into M&T Bank Stadium next to Camden Yards.[28]
+
+The National Register of Historic Places lists 280 historical properties in Baltimore city.
+
+Baltimore is in north-central Maryland. It is on the Patapsco River, close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. It is on the fall line between the Piedmont Plateau and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. (The fall line is a phrase in geology that means that this is a place where two different kinds of earth meet.) The fall line splits Baltimore into a "lower city" and "upper city."
+
+At the harbor, the city is at sea level. The highest point is near Pimlico in the northwest. There the elevation is 480 feet (150 m).[29]
+
+According to the 2010 census, the city has a total area of 92.052 square miles (238.41 km2). This is 80.944 square miles (209.64 km2) of land and 11.108 square miles (28.77 km2) of water.[9] The total area of Baltimore City is 12.07% water.
+
+Baltimore is in the humid subtropical climate zone (Cfa.) This is according to the Köppen climate classification
+
+July is usually the hottest month of the year. The average temperature in July is 81.7 °F (27.6 °C). Summer is usually very humid. The highest temperature on record is 107 °F (42 °C) in 1936.[30]
+
+January is the coldest month of the year. Sometimes wind from the subtropics brings springlike weather during winter. At night, winds from the Arctic make temperatures drop into the teens (in Fahrenheit; less than -7 °C.) Some nights the temperature drops to the single digits (less than -12 °C.) The coldest temperature on record is −7 °F (−22 °C) from 1934.[30]
+
+Downtown Baltimore and the parts of the city that are on the coast are usually warmer than other parts of Baltimore. This is because of the urban heat island effect. Also the Chesapeake Bay acts to moderate the effects of temperature. This means that the water helps keep the temperature from changing greatly.
+
+Baltimore gets a lot of rain during the whole year. There is no "rainy season" or "dry season." This is normal in most cities on the East Coast of the United States. Every month, about 3–4 inches (76–102 mm) of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.) falls in Baltimore. The total rainfall yearly average is around 42 inches (1,100 mm). There are usually about 105 sunny days in a year. There are lots of rain showers and thunderstorms during spring, summer, and fall. In the winter, there are longer but lighter rain showers, and less sunshine and more clouds. It sometimes snows in the winter. The average snowfall is 20.8 inches (53 cm).[31]
+
+Baltimore has architecture in every style from the last 200-plus years. Many famous architects have designed buildings in the city. Some of these architects are Benjamin Latrobe, George A. Frederick, John Russell Pope, Mies Van Der Rohe and I. M. Pei.
+
+The city has some buildings that are thought to be important to the history of architecture. Baltimore Basilica (1806–1821) was designed by Benjamin Latrobe in the neoclassical style. It is the oldest Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States. The Municipal Museum of Baltimore, often called the Peale Museum, was build in 1813 by Robert Cary Long, Sr. It was built for Rembrandt Peale and is the first building in the United States designed specifically to be a museum. The McKim Free School, built by Isaac McKim in 1822, shows the interest of early American architects in ancient Greek art.
+
+The Phoenix Shot Tower (1828) was the tallest building in the United States until the Civil War. It is 234.25 feet (71.40 m) tall. The tower was build without scaffolding. The Sun Iron Building (1851) was the first iron-front building. Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church (1870) has stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany. It has been called "one of the most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" by Baltimore Magazine.[36][37] The 1845 Greek Revival style Lloyd Street Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in the United States.
+
+The Baltimore World Trade Center was built in 1977 by architect I.M. Pei. The building is in the shape of an equilateral pentagon (it has five equal sides.) It is the tallest building of this shape in the world.
+
+Oriole Park at Camden Yards is considered by many to be the most beautiful baseball park in Major League Baseball. It is designed to be "retro style". The park has inspired many other cities to build their own retro ballparks. Camden Yards and the National Aquarium have helped revive the Inner Harbor. The area used to be an industrial district of run-down and abandoned warehouses. Today it is a lively commercial district full of bars, restaurants, and stores.
+
+Baltimore is officially split into nine regions. These regions are based on geography. Each region is patrolled by their own Baltimore Police Department district. These regions are: Northern, Northwestern, Northeastern, Western, Central, Eastern, Southern, Southwestern, and Southeastern. Locals sometimes split the city into "East Baltimore" and "West Baltimore" along Charles Street. Other locals sometimes split the city into "North Baltimore" and "South Baltimore" along Baltimore Street.
+
+The Central district includes Downtown Baltimore, Harborplace, The Camden Yards Sports Complex (Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium), the Convention Center, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It is the city's main commercial area. It also has many nightclubs, bars, restaurants, shopping centers, and other attractions. Many of the city's key businesses are in this area as well. The University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, University of Maryland Medical System, Maryland Institute College of Art, the Peabody Institute of music, the Lyric Opera House, The Walters Art Museum, and The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall are also in the central district.
+
+The Northern District is north of the Central district. Loyola University Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University and College of Notre Dame of Maryland are in this district. Some of the richer residential neighborhoods are also here. The neighborhood of Roland Park, the first planned suburban community in America, is one of these richer neighborhoods. The borders of the district are made by The Alameda on the east and Pimlico Road on the west.
+
+The Southern district is the part of the city below the Inner Harbor and east of the B&O Railroad tracks. It is a mix of industrial and residential areas. It is also a mix of many demographics, cultures, and ethnicities. It is home to the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Locust Point,[49] the historic neighborhood Federal Hill,[50] and poor residential neighborhoods like Cherry Hill.[51] There are two Port of Baltimore terminals in this district. The old Domino Sugar plant is also here.[49]
+
+The Northeastern district is mostly residential. It is home to Morgan State University. Today it is mostly African-American.[52][53][54] The district is bordered by the city line to the north and east; Sinclair Lane, Erdman Avenue, and Pulaski Highway on the south; and The Alameda on the west.
+
+The Eastern district is mostly poor, African-American residential neighborhoods. There are entire blocks of abandoned buildings. The district is also dangerous and has a problem with drug trafficking. For this reason, the TV show The Wire was often filmed in this district.[55] This area is also home to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The district is bordered by Erdman Avenue, Sinclair Lane, and Orleans Street.
+
+The Southeastern district is a mix of industrial and residential areas. Neighborhoods in this district usually have a mix of races and cultures.[56][57][58][59] The district is bordered by Orleans Street, the Inner Harbor, the city line, and the Baltimore harbor.
+
+The Northwestern district is mostly residential. It is also home to the Pimlico Race Course and Sinai Hospital. Until the 1960s, Baltimore's Jewish community was based in the Park Heights neighborhood. Since then, there has been "white flight" and the neighborhood today is almost all black.[60][61] Northern Parkway is a dividing line in the district. North of the parkway, the neighborhoods are mostly white. Some of these are Mount Washington and Cheswolde. South of the parkway, the neighborhoods are mostly black.[62] The borders of the district are made up by the county line on the north and west, Gwynns Falls Parkway on the south and Pimlico Road on the east.
+
+The Western district is the home of Coppin State University, Mondawmin Mall, and Edmondson Village. These are important to the culture, economy and history of the city's African American community. This district used to be the home to many middle and upper class African Americans, but they have moved away since.[63] Today, more than 45% of people living in some neighborhoods have income levels below the poverty line.[64][65] Some of the crime from this district was used in the TV show The Wire. The district is west of downtown. Its borders are Gwynns Falls Parkway, Fremont Avenue, and Baltimore Street.
+
+The Southwestern district is a mix of industrial parks and residential areas. St. Agnes Hospital is in this district. It has Baltimore County to the west, Baltimore Street to the north, and the downtown area to the east.
+
+Woodberry
+
+Charles Village
+
+Station North
+
+Fells Point
+
+Roland Park
+
+The City of Baltimore is next to several communities. All of these are unincorporated census-designated places.
+
+Baltimore is sometimes called the "city of neighborhoods." This name comes from the fact that it has 72 official historic districts (areas).[66] People of one ethnic group mainly live in each one of these areas. Some of the most important today are downtown. These are the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Little Italy. The Inner Harbor has lots of hotels, shops, and museums. Many tourists visit the Inner Harbor. Fells Point used to be a place where sailors went for entertainment. Today it has been rebuilt and cleaned up. This is the neighborhood in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Little Italy is where the Italian-American people live and work. Nancy Pelosi grew up in this neighborhood. She used to be Speaker of the House in Congress.
+
+Another important neighborhood is Mount Vernon. This neighborhood is the center of culture and art in Baltimore. There are many important monuments and museums there. One important monument is the Washington Monument. This monument was built in the 1800s in a plaza. It is older than the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C..
+
+Every year there is an art festival called Artscape. The festival is in the Bolton Hill neighborhood. This is very close to the Maryland Institute College of Art. Artscape is called the "largest free arts festival in America."[67] Another art festival that happens in Baltmore is the Maryland Film Festival. It happens every year in May. At the Film Festival, movies are shown at the Charles Theatre. (The Charles Theatre is an old cinema.)
+
+One of Baltimore's nicknames is "Charm City." Some advertisers wanted to make the city's reputation better. They started using the name in 1975.[68][69]
+
+People in Baltimore speak English. They have a very unique accent and way of speaking (dialect). For example, they pronounce "Baltimore" as "Balamer" or "Balmer." The Baltimore dialect is sometimes called "Baltimorese." It is a kind of Mid-Atlantic English. People from Baltimore will often call each other "Hon."[70]
+
+There are movies that parody (make fun of) the way people from Baltimore talk. A lot of these movies are made by John Waters. He is a movie maker from Baltimore. Most of Waters's movies were made in Baltimore. Pink Flamingos and Hairspray are some of these movies. Waters also wrote the musical version of Hairspray.
+
+Many very famous and important people were born or raised in Baltimore. Some of these are:
+
+Baltimore used to be mostly industrial. There was a lot of steel processing, shipping, car manufacturing, and transportation. Deindustrialization happened, and Baltimore lost a lot of jobs that paid a lot of money and did not need a lot of training or skill.[71] Today, most of the jobs in Baltimore are service economy jobs. These jobs do not pay very much. 90% of jobs are service jobs today.[72][73]
+
+In July 2012, the unemployment rate was 11%.[74] Also in 2012, the steel mill (factory) at Sparrow's Point closed. This will mean more people will lose their jobs.[75] 25% of people who live in Baltimore, and 37% of all children living in Baltimore, live in poverty.[76]
+
+Johns Hopkins Hospital is in Baltimore. Some big companies from Baltimore are Under Armour,[77] Cordish Company,[78] and Royal Farms.[79] There is a big sugar refinery in Baltimore. It is owned by American Sugar Refining.
+
+There are eight Interstate Highways in Baltimore. These are:
+
+Some of these highways do not connect to each other. I-70 stops at a parking lot just inside of the city. This is because of "freeway revolts" that happened in Baltimore. The interstate highways were supposed to go through downtown Baltimore, but the people in the city did not want this to happen. Barbara Mikulski, now a United States Senator, started the "freeway revolts" to keep the highways from being built in downtown.
+
+Today there are some highways numbered U.S. highways and state routes that run through downtown. These are US 1, US 40 National Road, and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. There are also some tunnels underneath the Baltimore harbor. I-95 runs through the Fort McHenry Tunnel. I-895 runs through the Harbor Tunnel.
+
+Baltimore has a beltway. A beltway is a highway that circles around a city. The Baltimore Beltway is I-695. It crosses over the Chesapeake Bay on the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This bridge is just south of the Inner Harbor.
+
+Baltimore is an important train stop. Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor stop in Baltimore. Penn Station is one of the busiest train stations in the country. In 2008 it was the 8th busiest train station in the United States. That year, more than 1 million people took a train to or from Penn Station.[80] Another important train station is at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Many Amtrak trains stop at the BWI Rail Station. The Amtrak trains that stop in Baltimore are: Acela Express, Palmetto, Carolinian, Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Vermonter, Crescent, and Northeast Regional. The MARC commuter rail service also has trains that stop in Baltimore. The MARC trains run from Camden Station and Penn Station in Baltimore to Union Station in Washington, D.C..
+
+Baltimore has many colleges and universities. These are both public (run by the government) and private. Some of them are:
+
+Baltimore City Public School System runs Baltimore's public schools. Some of these schools are well known. Carver Vocational-Technical High School was the first vocational high school for African-Americans in Maryland. Lake Clifton Eastern High School is the biggest school campus in Baltimore City. Frederick Douglass High School is the second-oldest African-American high school in the United States.[81] Baltimore City College is the third oldest public high school in the country.[82] Western High School is the oldest public all-girls school in the nation.[83] Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute are football rivals. This is the second-oldest high school football rivalry in the country.[84]
+
+Baltimore Stations
+
+WBFF FOX
+
+WMPB PBS
+
+Baltimore's main newspaper is The Baltimore Sun. In 1986, the newspaper was sold to the Times Mirror Company.[85] This company was bought by the Tribune Company in 2000.[86] Today, The Sun is still a Tribune newspaper.
+
+Baltimore had two newspapers until 1986. (It was very common for US cities to have two newspapers.) The other main newspaper was the Baltimore News-American. The News-American went out of business in 1986.[87]
+
+The Baltimore Examiner was started in 2006 to compete with The Sun. It was owned and run by a company that also published newspapers like The San Francisco Examiner and The Washington Examiner. The Examiner was a free newspaper that was paid for by advertising. (The Sun is not free.) The Examiner was not able to make money, and it stopped being published on February 15, 2009.
+
+According to Nielsen Market Research, Baltimore had the 26th-largest television market in 2008-2009. It was the 27th-largest market for 2009-2010.[88] Arbitron listed Baltimore as the 22nd-largest radio market in Fall 2010.[89]
+
+Baltimore has a long baseball history. The first team to play for Baltimore were the 19th century Baltimore Orioles (1882-1899). This was one of the most successful early baseball teams. The team had many hall of famers play for them. The great Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore in 1895. He played for the minor league Baltimore Orioles team. This team existed from 1903 to 1914 and from 1916 to 1953.[90]
+
+Today, Baltimore's Major League Baseball team is the Baltimore Orioles. They play in the American League. The Orioles came to Baltimore in 1954. Before that, the team had been in St. Louis, Missouri, where they were called the St. Louis Browns. The Orioles went to the World Series in 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1983. They won the World Series three times: in 1966, 1960, and 1983.
+
+In 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the record for the most games played in a row. The old record was set by Lou Gehrig, and was 2,130 games. Ripken was added to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine. There are six Orioles players and two managers in the hall of fame.
+
+Baltimore's first football team were the Baltimore Colts. The team came to Baltimore in 1953. Before then, they had played in Dallas, Texas as the Dallas Texans. The Colts played for Baltimore until 1984. In 1984, the team moved to Indianapolis and took the name. Today the team still plays as the Indianapolis Colts.
+
+In 1996, the Cleveland Browns came to Baltimore. They were renamed the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens won a Super Bowl championship in 2000 and again in 2012. They also won three American Football Conference (AFC) North division championships in 2003, 2006, and 2011. In addition, the played in three AFC Championship Games in 2000, 2009, and 2011.
+
+Baltimore has an indoor soccer team, the Baltimore Blast. They play for the Major Indoor Soccer League at the 1st Mariner Arena. The team joined the League in 2001. The Blast have won 5 league championships: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
+
+The Baltimore Blues are a semi-professional rugby league football club. They will compete in the USA Rugby League in 2012.[91] Other professional or semi-professional Baltimore teams include Crystal Palace Baltimore, an outdoor soccer franchise of
+USL Second Division. The Charm City Roller Girls are a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association since 2005.
+
+The Preakness Stakes are held every May at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The Preakness is the "second jewel" in the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
+
+Car races are held on the streets of downtown every year in September. The Baltimore Grand Prix runs through the Inner Harbor. It started in 2011. The American Le Mans Series, IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, and other races are a part of it.
+
+Baltimore is very politically liberal. The mayor of Baltimore is a Democrat. 84.7% of the voters in 2016 voted for the Democrat Hillary Clinton, and 87.2% of the voters in 2012 voted for the Democrat Barack Obama. The last time a Republican running for president won more votes than the Democratic candidate in Baltimore was 1956. Even in 1984, when Ronald Reagan won 49 states in his reelction campaign, only 28.2% of the voters in Baltimore voted for him.
+
+Baltimore has eleven sister cities. These were picked by Sister Cities International.[92][93]
+